Navy 1.2 (February 10, 2015) by KMI Media Group

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Warfighter First Combat Readiness, Material Readiness and Personal Readiness

Vice Admiral Thomas S. Rowden Commander Naval Surface Forces/ Pacific Fleet in the best material condition to support the CNO’s tenet of “warfighting first.” Q: You’ve been in command about six months. What have you established as your most important goals and what metrics will you use to measure progress?

Q: Tell me about your organization at Naval Surface Forces headquarters and what your deployed footprint looks like. Do you expect your org chart to look the same in 12 to 18 months? A: We’re what’s known as a “type command,” which means we’re responsible for outfitting the surface combatants, making sure we have the right sailors with the right qualifications and that we are properly maintaining these ships so they’re ready when fleet commanders require them. To that end, my staff provides logistical, training and combat systems support, as well as material inspections to stay ahead of challenges. We’ve seen progress in how we handle the manning, training and equipping of the force over the past few years, and we’ve laid the foundation for what’s coming next. Our organizational chart has grown and evolved, particularly as we bring the Naval Surface Warfighting Development Center online. We will continue to see growth in the first littoral combat ship squadron, DDG 1000 squadron, as well as Destroyer Squadron 7 in Singapore. All of these events move in sync with the purpose of keeping our fleet

A: The most important thing is “warfighting first.” It’s the CNO’s primary tenet and the one I take as my charge as the type commander for the surface force. It guides my vision for the surface force. It is as simple as it is crucial: “Providing combatant commanders with lethal, ready, well-trained and logistically supported surface forces to assure, deter and win.” You get there by prioritizing goals, and I have only one real priority: to ensure that everything we do makes us better warfighters. This goal is built on meeting three enduring pillars which enable warfighting first: combat readiness, material readiness and personal readiness. Each answers a basic question. Combat readiness asks, “Are we training our sailors to fight and win?” Material readiness asks, “Are we providing warships ready for combat?” And personal readiness asks, “Are we developing our sailors?” You’ll notice all of these pillars tie into one word: readiness. Every surface warfare officer (SWO) understands the importance of readiness. As “SWO Boss,” I have the primary responsibility for readiness, and it’s paramount to warfighting—and everything else we are called to do.

10 Feb 2015

Plus: • Who’s who at peo(a) • Navy SBIR Innovations

The Navy’s Proposed FY2016 Budget The Department of the Navy released its proposed $161.0 billion budget for fiscal year 2016 on February 2. This budget is part of the $534.3 billion defense budget President Barack Obama submitted to Congress on the same day. Rear Admiral William Lescher, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, briefed media at the Department of Defense budget press conference about the Navy and Marine Corps portion of the budget. “Our PB16 budget submission balances warfighting readiness with our nation’s fiscal challenges,” said Lescher. “Our force employment approach aligns capability, capacity and readiness to regional mission demands, ensuring our most modern and technologically advanced forces are located where their combat power is needed most, delivering presence where it matters, when it matters.” This year’s budget submission was guided by the chief of naval operations’ tenets of warfighting first, operate forward and be ready. It makes critical investments in people, ships and innovation so that the Department of the Navy can execute the defense strategy. The Department of the Navy requested $44.4 billion for procurement, focused on providing stability in the shipbuilding account and keeping the Navy on track to reach 304 ships by FY20. In FY16 the Navy will buy nine new ships, including two Arleigh Burke destroyers, two Virginia-class submarines, three littoral combat ships and the first next-generation logistics fleet resupply ship, the T-AO(X). Additionally, this budget includes fully funding the refueling for the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and the procurement of a dock landing ship (LPD 28) that Congress provided partial funds for in the FY15 budget. The budget includes a $50.4 billion request for operations and maintenance, reflecting

Continued On pAGE 40 ➥ Continued On pAGE 31 ➥

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February 10, 2015

Table of Contents Editorial Editor-in-Chief

Warfighter First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Navy’s Proposed FY2016 Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com

Airborne Laser Mine Detection System Production Continues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Managing Editor

Harrison Donnelly harrisond@kmimediagroup.com

Comms Systems for DDG 51 and DDG 1000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Copy Editors

Upgrade to Digital Modular Radios—Adding Virtual Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Crystal Jones crystalj@kmimediagroup.com Jonathan Magin jonathanm@kmimediagroup.com Correspondents

J.B. Bissell • Kasey Chisholm • Catherine Day Michael Frigand • Nora McGann

Art & Design Art Director

Jennifer Owers jennifero@kmimediagroup.com Ads and Materials Manager

Railgun Solicitation and Industry Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Coast Guard C-27J Simulator Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 AARGM Range Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 NAVSEA Warfare Centers Areas of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Arctic Ocean Ice Retreats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Jittima Saiwongnuan jittimas@kmimediagroup.com

Navy Installations Command’s Sailor of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Senior Graphic Designer

Shipboard Robotic Firefighter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Graphic Designers

Common Data Link Shipboard Radio Terminal Set for MH-60R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Scott Morris scottm@kmimediagroup.com Andrea Herrera andreah@kmimediagroup.com Amanda Paquette amandak@kmimediagroup.com

KMI Media Group Chief Executive Officer

Jack Kerrigan jack@kmimediagroup.com Publisher and Chief Financial Officer

Constance Kerrigan connik@kmimediagroup.com Editor-In-Chief

Jeff McKaughan jeffm@kmimediagroup.com Controller

Gigi Castro gcastro@kmimediagroup.com Trade Show Coordinator

Who’s Who at PEO Air ASW, Assault & Special Mission Programs . . . . . . . . . . . 10 CNO Outlines What’s Needed for the Future Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Navy College Program for Afloat College Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 NRL Searching for Signal Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Navy Littoral Combat Ship/Frigate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Coast Guard Cutter Sherman Change of Command

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Navy Installations Command’s Sailor of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Navy Littoral Combat Ship/Frigate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Holly Foster hollyf@kmimediagroup.com

Synthetic Guidance System for Tomahawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Operations, Circulation & Production

Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Operations Administrator

Bob Lesser bobl@kmimediagroup.com

Q&A with Vice Admiral Thomas S. Rowden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Circulation & Marketing Administrator

Contract Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Duane Ebanks duanee@kmimediagroup.com Circulation

Denise Woods denisew@kmimediagroup.com

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Corporate Offices

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February 10, 2015

Calendar of Events February 10-12, 2015 AFCEA West San Diego, Calif. www.afcea.org/events/west March 4-5, 2015 ASNE Day Arlington, Va. www.sname.org March 17-18, 2015 Precision Strike Forum Springfield, Va. www.precisionstrike.org

March 18, 2015 Special Topics Breakfast Speaker: Sean J. Stackley Arlington, Va. www.navyleague.org March 30-April 1, 2015 Joint Undersea Warfare Technology San Diego, Calif. www.ndia.org/meetings/5260 April 2, 2015 Coast Guard Intelligence Industry Day Chantilly, Va. www.afcea.org

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Airborne Laser Mine Detection System Production Continues Northrop Grumman Corporation has received a contract from the U.S. Navy for the continued production of the AN/AES-1 Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS). The contract includes the production of five ALMDS pod subsystems, support equipment, spares and technical support. The ALMDS is mounted on an MH-60S helicopter. Flying over sea lanes, it finds and geo-locates mine-like objects with its pulsed laser light and streak tube receivers by imaging, in 3-D, day or night, the near-surface of the ocean. “This program is a win-win. The airborne sensor has the capability to keep our sailors out of the minefield and we are producing it while reducing the per-pod price over previous buys in order to help the Navy to meet their cost targets,” said Doug Shaffer, director, electronic attack/maritime systems integration, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. “We look forward to continuing our long-standing relationship with the U.S. Navy on the ALMDS program and supporting initial operating capability in FY16.” The Northrop Grumman ALMDS team is comprised of Areté Associates, Tucson, Ariz., which manufactures the receiver sensor assembly; Cutting Edge Optronics, a Northrop Grumman subsidiary in St. Charles, Mo., which manufactures the high-powered laser transmitter; CPI Aerostructures, Edgewood, manufacturer of the pod housing; Curtiss Wright Defense Solutions, Santa Clarita, Calif., manufacturer of the central electronics chassis; and Meggitt Defence Systems, Irvine, Calif., which produces the environmental control system. Northrop Grumman has delivered 12 ALMDS pods to the U.S. Navy through four low-rate initial production lots, and four pods to the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force which are currently undergoing integration and test aboard the EH-101 helicopter.

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Comms Systems for DDG 51 and DDG 1000 The U.S. Navy has awarded BAE Systems a nine-year contract to support radio and communications systems design and integration for 13 surface combatant ships. The initial award is valued at $28.4 million, with the total value of the nine-year contract estimated at $187.4 million. Under the DDG VI Radio Communications Systems (RCS) contract, BAE Systems’ experts will provide systems engineering, production and integration for 12 DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers and one DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer. The company has held the RCS contract since 1985. Over time, the technologies have migrated from vacuum tube to software-defined radios; from rotary and plug-in patch panels to high-speed fiber-optic digital switching; and from mid-frame computers to cloud computing. “We have a hard-working and dedicated team of experts that has worked on every DDG 51 class destroyer in the U.S. Navy’s fleet, including most recently the USS John Finn,” said DeEtte Gray, president of BAE Systems’ intelligence and security sector. “That’s 63 new ships over 29 years.” “Under the DDG VI RCS contract, we provide a number of services for all equipment the DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class and DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class ships use for communication from the vessel,” explained Kris Busch, C4ISR and electronics systems vice president and general manager for BAE Systems, Intelligence and Security. “These services include design and production integration, test verification and validation, training, on-site shipbuilder installation and at-sea trials support. BAE Systems performs the vast majority of the work but utilizes small-business partners to provide specialized logistics and design integration support.” “The BAE Systems team is extremely proud to continue its work on the RCS contract,” said Busch. “We have leaned forward to evolve in order to provide warfighters the tools needed to complete their mission.”

February 10, 2015

Upgrade to Digital Modular Radios— Adding Virtual Channels General Dynamics’ four-channel Digital Modular Radios (DMR) are being upgraded with high-frequency dynamic routing (HFDR) software to turn the radio’s four channels into eight virtual channels. In addition to HFDR, the new high-frequency virtual channel exploitation software expands the DMR’s communications capacity to 16 virtual channels when operating in the high-frequency (HF) line-of-sight and ultra-high-frequency satellite communications frequencies. With the two new software upgrades, the U.S. Navy has four times more capacity for secure HF communications without adding additional hardware or changing the configuration in space-constrained shipboard radio

rooms. The Navy began equipping surface and subsurface ships and a number of landbased locations with the DMR in 1998, and there are currently 500 secure, four-channel DMR radios supporting Navy operations worldwide. Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics Mission Systems, said, “As the first software-defined radio to be used by the U.S. military, DMR continues to produce longterm cost-effectiveness for the Navy because these technology advancements use software, avoiding time-consuming and cost-intensive hardware replacements.” General Dynamics engineers are also working to integrate the new Mobile User

Objective Systems (MUOS) waveform into the DMR radios. The waveform is the digital dial tone needed to connect to the U.S. military’s new narrowband MUOS satellite communications system. Once the MUOS network is operational, Navy personnel will experience the global reach, voice clarity and connection speeds similar to the cellphones they use at home. Built using open architecture standards, the DMR radios will continue to provide improved functionality and interoperability while accommodating next-generation communications waveforms like MUOS, the integrated waveform and future advanced network communications waveforms.

Railgun Solicitation and Industry Day The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is hereby issuing a request for information on behalf of the Directed Energy and Electric Weapons Program Office (PMS 405), the Office of Naval Research and the Office of the Secretary of Defense from all potential sources on fire control sensor options, including architectural innovations and lessons learned, that could be applied to a multimission railgun

February 10, 2015

weapon system to support, detect, track and engage a broad spectrum of threats. The Navy will host two railgun program industry days on February 25 and 26, 2015 at 17211 Avenue D, Suite 160, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Dahlgren, Va. The Navy will provide a two (2) hour classified briefing at the SECRET level on the first day that will discuss the railgun program

objectives, an overview of the threat, and anticipated sensor performance requirements. After the briefing, one-on-one sessions will be offered to industry partners. One-on-one sessions are intended to facilitate a better understanding of the concept or approach of industry partners and to improve the utility of the responses, but are not required. Industry partners wishing to participate in the industry days

and a one-on-one session with the government must pre-register with Delpha Nichols at delpha.nichols. ctr@navy.mil—(202) 741-1400— via email no later than February 18, 2015, 5 p.m. Eastern. Participants must be U.S. citizens holding a security clearance at least at the SECRET level. (See article in Navy Air/Sea, February 3, 2015)

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AARGM Range Improvement Program Executive Office, Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons (PEO (U&W)) PMA-242 is conducting market research to support future acquisition planning to increase the range of the AGM-88E advanced anti-radiation guided missile (AARGM). The purpose is to collect any research, technologies and existing programs that may assist in determining the feasibility and affordability of providing increased range to AARGM. Though PMA-242 is interested in solutions that could be applied to the AGM-88 family of missiles, the primary purpose of the research is to collect information regarding a range increase for AARGM. As a result of Naval Air Systems Command studies and other government analysis, PMA-242 is interested in a solid rocket motor (SRM) with increased delivered impulse to be incorporated into AARGM missiles for the purpose of increasing range. However, non-SRM-based solutions that improve range performance are also of interest. Recommendations should discuss concepts and designs that leverage existing AARGM hardware and software to the greatest extent possible. The Navy is looking for improvements for the AGM-88E missile that meet a fielding requirement of fiscal year 2022 (threshold/2021 objective) following funding start in FY16. Production quantity for AARGM is estimated to be between 200 and 1,000 units. No capability improvements to the AARGM seeker and warhead performance are desired at this time, and any modifications to the seeker or warhead to support range improvement that adversely affect those two subsystems are to be avoided. Range improvements may require changes to missile subsystems to include, but not limited to, guidance and control hardware, software, fuzing, radome and missile battery. PMA-242 intends to host an industry day tentatively in spring 2015 as a forum to provide open responses to respondent questions and to receive individual briefs on AARGM extended range concepts.

Coast Guard C-27J Simulator Access Through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014, the Coast Guard has acquired 14 C-27J aircraft from the U.S. Air Force. The C-27J is a medium-size military transport aircraft manufactured by Alenia Aermacchi (Italy). CG-9 established the C-27J Asset Project Office (APO) Elizabeth City to make these aircraft ready for Coast Guard use. The C-27J APO will support the oversight of the process from acquisition and missionization of the C-27J to sustainment. The C-27J APO will operate the aircraft to support aircrew and maintenance training and testing and evaluation events. The C-27J APO will also develop C-27J operational and maintenance procedures and Coast Guard-specific C-27J technical publications. The Coast Guard needs to acquire recurring simulator (operational, full-motion, night vision imaging system-compatible) access for the initial cadre of USCG C-27J pilots for the APO, located in Elizabeth City, N.C., and future proposed air stations until long-term options are determined. The USCG does not own a C-27J simulator to conduct pilot initial and refresher simulator training. Simulators provide Coast Guard pilots and loadmasters the opportunity to practice aircrew communication skills, which are vital to crew resource management, in addition to aircraft emergency procedures. These emergency procedures cannot be practiced in the aircraft to the same extent as the simulator. Without simulator training, there is an increased www.npeo-kmi.com

risk of loss to aircraft and crew if emergencies are encountered in the actual aircraft. The Coast Guard is not seeking training for this effort, simply simulator access. The Coast Guard plans to provide a qualified Coast Guard instructor to instruct up to two students in a contractor-provided C-27J simulator.

February 10, 2015

NAVSEA Warfare Centers Areas of Interest The Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) warfare centers are comprised of the Naval Surface Warfare Center and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. Together, these warfare centers operate the Navyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full-spectrum research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support centers for offensive and defensive systems associated with surface and undersea warfare, joint, homeland and national defense systems. Performing this work relies on a capable naval engineering workforce.

A. Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Division Topic 1 - Precious metal catalyst development and quantitative characterization for confined space air quality Topic 2 - Power calibration for high-energy laser (HEL) weapons Topic 3 - Investigate methods to produce consistent pyrophoric thin wall hollow spheres Topic 4 - Methods for extending non-line-ofsight ship-to-ship communication Topic 5 - State-space reliability modeling of networks with Markov CHAINS/PETRI Nets B. Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division Topic 1 - Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) to reduce the total life cycle costs of developing and sustaining weapon systems Topic 2 - Cooling technologies for high thermal density applications in high-power MMIC devices Topic 3 - Electro-optics/infrared (EO/IR) countermeasures and counter-electronic warfare (EW) Topic 4 - Novel pyrotechnic materials and compositions Topic 5 - Defeat mechanisms for threats sensing non-infrared (IR) wavelengths Topic 6 - Novel applications in artificial intelligence for data analysis Topic 7 - Multispectral electronic warfare (EW) sensor fusion and signal processing Topic 8 - Dynamic spectrum access and supporting technologies; the purpose of this research is to explore novel techniques for accessing the electromagnetic spectrum Topic 9 - Military applications of cybersecurity to identify vulnerabilities between software, hardware and wireless communication C. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (Bethesda) a. Hydrodynamics/Hydromechanics Research and Development

February 10, 2015

Through the Naval Engineering Educational Consortium (NEEC), funding is provided via a broad agency announcement to researchers in academia (professors and students) for hands-on, project-based research in the technology areas outlined below. It is anticipated that students who participate in the project-based research have interest in and potential for joining the NAVSEA Warfare Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s workforce after graduation. The following identifies areas of research interest for the NAVSEA Warfare Centers.

Topic 1 - Flow measurements for model maneuvers Topic 2 - Multi-hull propulsion and hull form design modeling and simulation Topic 3 - Effects of surface roughness on friction drag along plates and hulls Topic 4 - Quantification of extreme ocean events on naval vessels

a. Machinery Automation and Controls Research and Development

Topic 5 - High-temperature (fire) material characterization of aluminum Topic 6 - Weld/heat impacts on localized yield strength of Aluminum 6000 series Topic 7 - Additive manufacturing and associated printed material qualification techniques

Topic 1 - Hardware and software security for embedded systems and industrial control systems which provide resilience and security for shipboard and land-based cyber-physical systems such as machinery control systems, propulsion systems, cooling systems and electrical generation and distribution systems Topic 2 - Condition assessment and prognostics to determine the condition of the shipboard electrical and mechanical systems (rotating machinery and power electronics systems) Topic 3 - Distributed, survivable, resilient control to enhance survivability of shipboard systems subject to kinetic and cyber attack

c. Signatures and Silencing Research and Development

b. Energy Conversion Research and Development (Superconductivity)

Topic 8 - Sound pressure level measurements of a sound source in high background noise Topic 9 - Turbulence-induced noise propagation Topic 10 - Noise and thermal signature management of naval systems

Topic 4 - Advanced technologies associated with cryogenic superconducting systems, including superconductors, refrigerators, dielectrics, power electronics, superconducting transformers and cooling with gaseous or multi-phase cryogens

b. Structures and Materials Research and Development

d. Ship Integration and Design Research and Development Topic 11 - Human augmentation technologies for shipbuilding productivity enhancement Topic 12 - Unmanned power and energy transfer for unmanned surface and underwater vehicles e. Technology Office Portfolio Data Management and Distribution Topic 13 - Innovative user interfaces for high-volume data repositories D. Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (Ship Systems Engineering Station, Philadelphia)

c. Energy Conversion Research and Development (Energy Storage) Topic 5 - Design and analysis of intermediate storage systems to buffer highly transient loads in MVDC architectures d. Electric Power Research and Development Topic 6 - Power systems integration of energy generation and storage for intermittent loads that exceed generator capacity while minimizing variations in generator output power Topic 7 - Power system distribution architectures for representative shipboard loads from a network of generators and sources having variable frequencies and variable voltages

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e. Coatings Engineering Research Topic 8 - Assessing solvent entrapment as a cause of adhesion failures of marine nonskid coating systems Topic 9 - Modeling and simulation of failure analysis predictions for naval coating systems Topic 10 - Characterization and quantification techniques of the relationship between adhesion and coating thickness of marine non-skid applications E. Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division Topic 1 - Communications-constrained path planning in littoral environments Topic 2 - Multi-vehicle sensing and collaboration F. Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division Topic 1 - Emerging software development, including: Scalable Linux and real-time virtualization support for multicore hardware, automated testing, cybersecurity, model-based development, software certification and software verification Topic 2 - Mission engineering analysis for emerging weapon systems, systems engineering techniques and algorithms, platform-level analysis capabilities, integrated platform analysis capabilities, missions thread visualizations capabilities, and related research topics Topic 3 - Materials for rail ablation reduction, energy storage, weight reduction, energy recovery, component development, high-energy systems components, advanced cooling techniques and related research for railgun systems Topic 4 - Laser propagation, energy density, manufacturing, control and beam forming for lasers as weapons in a marine environment Topic 5 - Radar development and unitization in a marine environment to include component development, power density, advanced signal processing and track processing for surface radar applications Topic 6 - Human systems interface research topics, including: human-device interaction, workload assessment, human performance modeling, anthropometry and biomechanics, cognitive engineering, decision-making under uncertainty, function allocation, wearable computing and work-rest cycles G. Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division Topic 1 - Collection and assessment of atmospheric transmission data during daylight hours

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Topic 2 - Geostatistical methods for spatiotemporal outlier and anomaly detection in sensor networks Topic 3 - Power calibration for high-energy laser (HEL) weapons Topic 4 - Measurements and predictions of atmospheric turbulence Topic 5 - Time series analysis for electronic prognostics for predicting remaining useful life of systems, sub-systems and components Topic 6 - Innovative network optimization for audio, video and image processing Topic 7 - Advanced materials for combining corrosion control and weight reduction on naval vessels H. Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division a. Development of novel stored energy options using energetic materials Topic 1 - Alternate micro power solutions to harvest, store and provide energy Topic 2 - Advanced expeditionary UUV power and propulsion systems Topic 3 - Novel methods of using energetic materials and explosives for energy management and storage b. Additive manufacturing optimization for energetic and EOD applications Topic 4 - Development of novel warhead case designs using additive manufacturing methods Topic 5 - Development of 3-D printing as a tool for supporting fleet spare or repairs parts in naval gun systems

c. Enhanced autonomous vehicle maneuver and navigation Topic 6 - Supervised tele-autonomy for agile mobility and dexterous manipulation Topic 7 - Improved hovering autonomous underwater vehicle feature-based navigation via sonar footprint and camera feed d. Chemical Processing and energetic formulation scale up Topic 8 - Replacement of obsolete chemicals used in propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics Topic 9 - Nitration processing optimization I. Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport Topic 1 - Autonomous control for multiple unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) J. Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Newport Topic 1 - High performance control for agile undersea vehicles Topic 2 - High-energy laser beam propagation at near marine boundary condition data collection and modeling Topic 3 - Wave-based analysis of distributed acoustic sensor networks Topic 4 - Bragg scattering in ensonified periodic structures Topic 5 - Computational and experimental techniques for shock response of composite materials subjected to aggressive marine environments Topic 6 - Bio-inspired broadband sonar Topic 7 - Improved acquire, track and hold performance on sonar contacts

February 10, 2015

Arctic Ocean Ice Retreats Scientists sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently revealed their latest findings from a study on Arctic sea ice, with one expert noting that summer sea ice levels could potentially fall to zero before the end of this century. Scientists presented initial findings from ONR’s Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) experiment that took place last year in the Arctic Ocean—the largest research effort ever using robotic technologies to investigate ice conditions where the frozen ocean meets the open ocean. “There’s no question that the Arctic sea ice extent is decreasing,” said Dr. Martin Jeffries, program officer for the ONR Arctic and Global Prediction Program. “Multiple sources of data—autonomous underwater gliders, ice-measuring buoys and satellite images of the Marginal Ice Zone—were used to help understand why the ice is retreating.” The implications for the Navy, and the world, are significant. If there were no sea ice in the Arctic at the end of summer, that would mean that the Arctic Ocean would, until the winter ice came in, be completely open—something unprecedented in living memory, Jeffries noted. Naval leaders have made it clear that understanding a changing Arctic is essential for the Navy to be prepared to respond effectively to future needs. In the period between 2007 and 2014, satellites recorded the eight lowest sea ice levels ever. One of the key goals of the MIZ

program, which runs through 2017, is to use new data to make better predictive computer models—ensuring safer operations for not only naval vessels, but also anticipated increased sea traffic by shipping and fishing industries; oil, gas and mining companies; and tourism operations. In addition to gaining insights from the atmosphere, ice and ocean to help understand changing sea ice levels, the MIZ program has proved the importance of new robotic technologies. Much of the data coming in to Arctic scientists is now from improved sensors, with greater ability to survive the harsh weather and ocean conditions. Some of those technologies include Seagliders—autonomous underwater vehicles that measure the salinity, temperature and optical properties of the water, both on and below the ice; buoys that measure the thickness and temperature of the ice; and Dropsondes— small sensors released from the air to obtain improved atmospheric measurements. “The data from the MIZ experiments confirm how important it is to better understand the Arctic atmosphere, ice, ocean and ocean surface waves,” said Jeffries. “The newer robotic measuring capabilities being used by ONR-sponsored researchers are proving essential for us to better understand the region.” By the Office of Naval Research public affairs

Navy Installations Command’s Sailor of the Year By Sandra L. Niedzwiecki, Navy Installations Command public affairs. Commander, Navy Installations Command (CNIC) recently announced the CNIC 2014 Sailor of the Year (SOY). Air-Traffic Controlman 1st Class (AW/ SW) Darren S. Johnson, from Naval Station (NAVSTA), Norfolk, Va., under Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, was selected from among 70 installation SOYs to earn the prestigious award. Johnson was among three finalists who went before the SOY board conducted by a 8

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panel of senior enlisted leaders. Each sailor’s service record was scrutinized, carefully evaluating the sailor on educational accomplishments, physical fitness standards, academic test scores and participation in civic and community activities. The other two candidates who competed for the award were Electronics Technician 1st Class Tracy Rico (SW), NAVSTA Everett, Wash., and Master-at-Arms 1st Class Christie

Kunkel (SW), Naval Support Activities Naples, Italy. “Having the chance to talk to these three humble individuals, who put their sailors first, who put their jobs first, made me reflect back a little bit on my first days in the Navy,” said Vice Admiral Dixon R. Smith, commander, Navy Installations Command. “It’s our petty officers who get the job done. These three individuals, every one of us can be proud of them.” www.npeo-kmi.com

Shipboard Robotic Firefighter Navy scientists unveiled a firefighting robot prototype, revealing details about its successful demonstrations last fall aboard the USS Shadwell, a decommissioned Navy vessel. The Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR), sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), walked across uneven floors, used thermal imaging to identify overheated equipment and used a hose to extinguish a small fire in a series of experiments between November 3-5, 2014. Developed by researchers at Virginia Tech, the two-legged, or bipedal, humanoid robot is helping ONR evaluate the applications of unmanned systems in damage control and inspections aboard naval vessels, supporting the autonomy and unmanned systems focus area in the Navy’s Science and Technology Strategy. “We set out to build and demonstrate a humanoid capable of mobility aboard a ship, manipulating doors and fire hoses, and equipped with sensors to see and navigate through smoke,” said Dr. Thomas McKenna, ONR program manager for human-robot interaction and cognitive neuroscience. “The long-term goal is to keep sailors from the danger of direct exposure to fire.” SAFFiR stands 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 143 pounds. The unique mechanism design on the robot equips it with super-human range of motion to maneuver in complex spaces. “Balancing on any type of terrain that’s unstable—especially for bipedal robots—is very difficult,” said Brian Lattimer, associate professor for mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. “Whole-body momentum control allows for the robot to optimize the locations of all of its joints so that it maintains its center of mass on uncertain and unstable surfaces.”

Sensors, including infrared stereovision and a rotating laser for light detection and ranging (LiDAR), enable the humanoid to see through dense smoke. It is programmed to take measured steps and handle hoses on its own, but for now, takes its instruction from researchers at a computer console. “The robot has the ability to perform autonomous tasks, but we have a human in the loop to allow an operator to intervene in any type of task that the robot’s doing,” Lattimer said. McKenna plans to sponsor a more advanced design as part of the long-term investigational research program. Blueprints include equipping the robot with enhanced intelligence, communications capabilities, speed, computing power and battery life for extended applications.

Common Data Link Shipboard Radio Terminal Set for MH-60R Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Multi-Mission Helicopter Program Office (PMA-299) is seeking potential sources capable of providing a common data link for (CDL) Ku-band Shipboard radio terminal sets (RTS). The CDL RTS is responsible for exchanging MH-60R tactical data between the ship and aircraft. The AN/SRQ-4(Ku) accepts voice from the voice switchboard and command control information from the ship data processor unit; SDPU (AN/UYK-20, AN/UYK-43, AN/UYK-44 or later ship upgrades control and interface processor), and tactical control station (TCS) workstation interface; and transmits that information uplink via microwave radiation to the uplink receive voice and command control channel of the radio terminal set AN/ARQ-59.

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The AN/SRQ-4(Ku) receives microwave radiation from the AN/ARQ-59. The downlink data consists of airborne sensor data, equipment status and voice communications. The AN/ SRQ-4(Ku) formats and distributes the data

to the appropriate ship’s equipment. The equipment shall accept, format and transmit airborne sensor data, voice and control status data as radiated microwave signals to the AN/ SRQ-4(Ku) for use by the ship.

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PEO Air ASW, Assault & Special Mission Programs

Headquarters

2015

Rear Adm. CJ Jaynes Program Executive Officer

Glenn Perryman Deputy Program Executive Officer

Cmdr. Laura Schuessler Chief of Staff

NAVAIR SUPPORT

Cindy Burke Business/Financial Management

Steve Nickle Contracts

Shawn Slade Science & Technology

Logistics

RDT&E

Test & Evalutation

Bruce Dinopoulos Assistant Program Executive Officer Logistics

David Meiser Assistant Program Executive Officer RDT&E

Mac Brown Assistant Program Executive Officer Test & Evaluation

Chuck Cobaugh Logistics

Jim McLaughlin RDT&E

Jim Schmidt Test & Evaluation

PEO Air ASW, Assault & Special Mission Programs

Staff

Joanne Cardarelli Plans and Policies

Chris McLellan Deputy for Management Systems

Tactical, Airlift, Adversary & Support

Doug Dawson Program Manager

Capt. Dave Padula Deputy Program Manager

Airborne Strategic C3

Capt. Kyle Karstens Program Manager

Stoney MacAdams Deputy Program Manager

Light/Attack Helicopters

Col. Steven Girard Program Manager

Jack Fulton Deputy Program Manager

Darnelle Fisher Deputy for Acquisition

H-53 Heavy Lift Helicopters

Col. Hank Vanderborght Program Manager

Jay Stratakes Deputy Program Manager

Presidential Helicopters

Col. Bert Pridgen Program Manager

Larry Pugh Deputy Program Manager

Maritime Patrol & Reconnaissance Aircraft

Capt. Scott Dillon Program Manager

Martin Ahmad Deputy Program Manager

ASW Systems

Capt. Matt Tobler Program Manager

Paul Bogner Deputy Program Manager

V-22 Osprey

Col. Dan Robinson Program Manager

Scott Hite Deputy Program Manager

Multi-Mission Helicopters

Capt. Craig Grubb Program Manager

Holli Galletti Deputy Program Manager

CNO Outlines What’s Needed for the Future Force •

reduce gunpowder reliance

•

increase stamina for UUVs

•

cybersecurity

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Jonathan Greenert outlined his thoughts on three science and technology objectives for the Navy and Marine Corps of the future at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology (S&T) Expo in Washington, D.C. Speaking before nearly 3,000 attendees from across government, academia and industry, Greenert charged his audience to reduce reliance on gunpowder; increase stamina for underwater unmanned vehicles’ power and propulsion systems; and increase focus on cybersecurity. “Number one, you’ve got to get us off gunpowder,” said Greenert, noting that Office of Naval Research-supported weapon programs, such as laser weapon system (LaWS) and the electromagnetic railgun, are vital to the future force. “We will have an incredibly deep magazine when we bring [those weapons] in.” Weapons like LaWS have a virtually unlimited magazine, only constrained by power and cooling capabilities onboard the vessel carrying them. In addition, Greenert noted the added safety for sailors and Marines that will come from reducing dependency on gunpowder-based munitions. “Probably the biggest vulnerability of a ship is its magazine, because that’s where all the explosives are,” he said. He also cited the tremendous cost savings offered by laser weapons fired at a dollar per shot or low-cost electromagnetic railgun projectiles versus needing to rely on $1 million missiles, in some cases without the same range, for all threats and missions. Greenert’s second challenge for the S&T community is to develop “greater stamina” in unmanned underwater vehicle propulsion systems to maintain naval dominance in the undersea domain. “I need them compact and reliable in

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their power and propulsion, but I also need them safe,” he said. And, as the Ohio-class submarines near replacement age, Greenert noted that increased range and endurance for unmanned systems will be vital for the future fleet, with the overall number of submarines projected to decrease. Greenert’s final S&T objective centers on cybersecurity, which he said keeps him up at night. “I need you to lock your IT doors,” he told the expo attendees. “You do it at home, and you need to keep that mindset at work. “Cybersecurity is a key requirement for all our systems and weapons.”

He encouraged scientists and engineers to include security in the initial design of everything they do, rather than trying to add security measures later. The CNO also discussed the history of game-changing technologies that have come from the Naval S&T community, including GPS, advanced radar and quiet propulsion capabilities. He then said, “We continue to rely on you.” The host of the expo, Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Mat Winter, introduced the CNO and spoke about the importance of Naval S&T research for the future force, including the essential partnerships between the Naval Research Enterprise, academia and industry.

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Navy College Program for Afloat College Education College tuition is a huge bargain for sailors taking classes through Navy College Program for Afloat College Education (NCPACE)—in fact, it’s almost free. NCPACE, one of numerous programs administered by Navy Voluntary Education (VOLED), is offered to officers and enlisted sailors assigned to ships and deployable commands (Type 2 and 4 duty) to provide undergraduate and graduate educational opportunities on par with those available to sailors on shore duty. With tuition funded at 100 percent, students are responsible only for the cost of textbooks and related materials. Approximately 7,200 individual sailors participated in NCPACE in FY13, accounting for more than 10,700 enrollments. Commands must have an active NCPACE program for sailors to participate. One such command is the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, which maintenance control team member and education services officer (ESO) Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 1st Class (AW) John Phillips is glad about. Using NCPACE, he completed a Master of Arts in administrative leadership at the University of Oklahoma in December. “I enlisted in the Navy to serve my country and was aware the GI Bill provided an opportunity to complete my education,” said Phillips. “Once in the Navy, the additional educational benefits offered such as Tuition Assistance (TA), NCPACE, and college-level exams came as a welcome surprise. Each time I reenlisted, the educational benefits—which far exceed those offered in most civilian employment—became a reinforcing factor for staying in.” Most sailors hear “voluntary education” and tend to think of TA, which pays tuition for courses toward completion of a high school diploma, certificate, or technical www.npeo-kmi.com

or college degree. While TA is the most popular VOLED program the Navy offers, it has annual caps for each participant to ensure as many sailors as possible have an opportunity to use it. NCPACE courses, however, don’t count against a sailor’s annual maximum TA funding cap while still providing the means for sailors to complete coursework toward a diploma or degree. This, coupled with the low cost, makes NCPACE among the best educational deals the Navy offers, according to Lieutenant Commander Mark Wadsworth, director of Voluntary Education Support Site Saufley Field in Pensacola, Fla. “Sailors only having to foot the bill for books and course materials is a big savings for them,” said Wadsworth.”Taking courses through NCPACE is a really good way for sailors to continue their education, especially when they’ve maxed out their TA for the year.” Wadsworth pointed out that all NCPACE schools are regionally accredited, meaning sailors will have maximum flexibility in transferring credits to their home college. Another benefit of NCPACE is flexible term dates that can be tailored to a unit’s deployment cycle at the unit ESO’s request. “While NCPACE doesn’t have an annual credit hour cap like TA, we do limit sailors to two NCPACE courses per term regardless of the delivery method being instructor led (IL) or distance led (DL),” he said. “This, along with the number of terms a command requests, will determine the number of NCPACE courses a sailor can potentially complete in a year.” The IL delivery method provides an instructor teaching courses while a ship is underway or pierside, while the DL program allows the flexibility of independent study. NCPACE can be continued during in-port periods through coordination with the local Navy college office, according to Wadsworth.

The NCPACE program also offers IL academic skills classes in math, reading and writing to help sailors improve their skills in those areas. Chief Navy Counselor (SW/ AW) Travis Cook, command career counselor and ESO for Assault Craft Unit One in Coronado, Calif., has taken NCPACE courses at four commands, which allowed him to earn an Associate of Applied Science through Excelsior College. “I found out about NCPACE early in my career through my command career counselor and career development boards,” said Cook. “I have no doubt that earning my degree has helped me reach the level I’ve obtained in the Navy as a chief petty officer. So now when I talk to junior sailors, I tell them that education will not only benefit you when you decide to leave the service, but it can help you while you’re still active.” Cook said finding time to participate in NCPACE is, indeed, possible. “The most challenging part for me was balancing family, work and the education requirements,” said Cook. “I would recommend that any sailor who’s interested to first talk to their command career counselor, a mentor or someone in their chain of command for guidance to make sure they meet command requirements and are eligible.” Phillips said sailors participating in NCPACE should choose the right course delivery method and be ready to maintain self-discipline. “The DL program is an outstanding opportunity for those who have the drive and tenacity to complete courses outside of a classroom environment, but it can be challenging for those who appreciate continual interaction from an instructor,” said Phillips. “The IL program brings the instructor to the student, but it’s still challenging because sailors must dedicate what little free time they may have toward attending class and complet-

ing the coursework.” Cook said the key to any sailor’s success in NCPACE is to effectively prioritize personal responsibilities. “I tell sailors to remember that your job comes first,” said Cook. “Make sure you’re ready to handle the responsibility of work and taking classes. Don’t rush into something you’re not mentally prepared for. When the time is right, take advantage of all the benefits the Navy has to offer.” “Our leadership recognizes that off-duty education is voluntary, but they consider it valuable and a direct reflection on a sailor’s level of motivation for self-improvement,” said Phillips. “As such, off-duty education has become a standard question during our Sailor of the Year and quarter boards, mid-term counselings, and career development boards. Every sailor is encouraged to take advantage of the various VOLED programs the Navy offers.” Navy VOLED Director Ernest D’Antonio, also a retired U.S. Marine, is personally aware of the challenge of taking courses while assigned to a deployed unit. He still hopes more sailors will take advantage of NCPACE. “If sailors who want a college degree take advantage of NCPACE when they can, it will cost them less time and money in the long run,” he said. “This program is an all-around win for sailors who are working toward their degree and trying to save money. It’s also a win for participating commands because, just like all VOLED programs, their sailors are learning critical thinking and analytical skills that help them make informed decisions and perform at a higher level, which contributes to overall mission accomplishment.” By Susan D. Henson, Center for Personal and Professional Development public affairs officer. February 10, 2015

NRL Searching for Signal Generator The Naval Research Laboratory has several computer systems and software that can provide arbitrary waveform analog signals to drive individual elements of an acoustic source cluster. NRL’s software performs analog signal generation for each element of the source cluster. NRL’s existing computer systems have been previously used with the Engineering Acoustics, Inc. model PS300, PS500 and PS800 transducers. The 2-7 kHz vertical source array is intended to be used only during ship-tethered operations so that matching network and power amplifier components are not needed. NRL wants to acquire multiple hardware components necessary to complete the development if an autonomous multi-channel broadband sonar system that can be deployed in either moored or low-speed towing (less than three knots) configurations at water depths up to 300 meters. The system is to be capable of operating as a broadband, coherent source cluster at source levels higher than 180 dB re 1μPa@1m at low frequencies (less than 1 kHz) and at source levels higher than 200 dB re 1μPa@1m at mid-frequencies (between2 kHz and 7 kHz). It is intended to support a variety of investigations relevant to active and passive Navy sonar performance in littoral waters. The Navy’s goal is to purchase a cost-effective system that minimizes new engineering design and development.

Alternative approaches and technical specifications may be proposed by potential vendors if they result in a more cost-effective design. A cluster of low-frequency transducers having 10% bandwidth at center frequencies around 100, 200, 300, 500 and 800 Hz are needed. However, to balance technical capability and cost, potential vendors, can propose a system having a minimum source level of 200 dB re 1μPa@1m at frequencies below 3 kHz. The system will be deployed from oceanographic vessels such as those operated by the University of National Oceanographic Laboratory System, NATO and the U.S. Navy.

Coast Guard Cutter Sherman Change of Command On February 4, Coast Guard Cutter Sherman held a change of command ceremony at Coast Guard Base Honolulu. Captain Aldante Vinciguerra relieved Captain Kevin A. Jones as commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutter Sherman. Jones will

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assume command of Rush, which was recently decommissioned. Vice Admiral Charles W. Ray, Coast Guard Pacific Area commander, presided over the event. The Coast Guard Cutter Sherman, formerly assigned to San Diego, will replace Rush in

Honolulu and assume Rush’s responsibilities. Rush is the sixth high-endurance cutter to be decommissioned, with six remaining in service on the West Coast. These high-endurance cutters are being replaced by the more capable fleet of national security cutters, which perform

critical homeland security, law enforcement and national defense missions around the world. The Coast Guard is working with the State Department to transfer Rush to the Bangladesh Navy as part of a foreign military sale through the Foreign Assistance Act.

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Synthetic Guidance System for Tomahawk A synthetically guided Tomahawk cruise missile successfully hit its first moving maritime target January 27 after being launched from the USS Kidd (DDG 100) near San Nicolas Island in California. The Tomahawk Block IV flight test demonstrated guidance capability when the missile in flight altered its course toward the moving target after receiving position updates from surveillance aircraft. “This is a significant accomplishment,” said Captain Joe Mauser, Tomahawk Weapons System (PMA-280) program manager. “It demonstrates the viability of long-range communications

for position updates of moving targets. This success further demonstrates the existing capability of Tomahawk as a netted weapon, and in doing so, extends its reach beyond fixed and re-locatable points to moving targets.” The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) team leveraged existing Tomahawk strike communications frameworks to develop this costsaving solution. This joint venture between NAWCWD at China Lake, PMA-280 and Raytheon Missile Systems received major contributions from the Office of Naval Research Advanced Sensors Technology Program and the surface warfare centers at

Dahlgren, Va., and Port Hueneme, Calif. “We have worked with teams across the country to be successful today,” said Scott O’Neil, NAW-

CWD executive director. “This is a project that increases warfighting capability, reduces cost and can be added to other existing technologies out in the field.”

Navy Littoral Combat Ship/Frigate Program: Background and Issues for Congress By Ronald O’Rourke, Specialist in Naval Affairs, Congressional Research Service The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS)/Frigate program is planned to procure 52 LCSs and frigates. The first LCS was funded in fiscal year 2005, and a total of 23 have been funded through FY15. The Navy’s proposed FY16 budget is expected to request funding for the procurement of three more LCSs. From 2001 to 2014, the program was known simply as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program, and all 52 planned ships were referred to as LCSs. In 2014, at the direction of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, the program was restructured. As a result of the restructuring, the Navy now wants to build the final 20 ships in the program (ships 33 through 52) to a revised version of the baseline LCS design. The Navy intends to refer to these 20 ships, which the Navy wants to procure in FY29 and subsequent fiscal years, as frigates rather than LCSs. The Navy has indicated that it may also want to build ships 25 through 32 with at least some of the design changes now intended for the final 20 ships. The Navy wants to procure ships 25 through 32 in FY16-18. Two very different baseline LCS designs are being built. One was developed by an industry team led by Lockheed; the other was developed by an industry team that was led by General Dynamics. The Lockheed design is built at the Marinette Marine shipyard at Marinette, Wis.; the General Dynamics design is built at the Austal USA shipyard at Mobile, Ala. Ships 5 through 24 in the program are being procured under a pair of 10-ship block buy contracts that were awarded to the two LCS builders in December 2010. The 24th LCS—the first of the three LCSs expected to be requested for procurement in FY16—is the final ship to be procured under these block buy contracts.

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The LCS program has been controversial due to past cost growth, design and construction issues with the lead ships built to each design, concerns over the ships’ survivability (i.e., ability to withstand battle damage), concerns over whether the ships are sufficiently armed and would be able to perform their stated missions effectively, and concerns over the development and testing of the ships’ modular mission packages. The Navy’s execution of the program has been a matter of congressional oversight attention for several years. The program’s restructuring in 2014 raises additional oversight issues for Congress. Click here to read the entire Congressional Research Service report.

February 10, 2015

Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research Program The Navy’s Small Business Innovative Research Program is a mission-oriented program that integrates the needs and requirements of the Navy’s fleet through R&D topics that have dual use potential, but primarily address the needs of the Navy. Navy Air/SEA has collected a selection of the current solicitations recently released by the Navy. Responsibility for the implementation, administration and management of the Department of the Navy SBIR Program is with the Office of Naval Research (ONR). The acting director of the DoN SBIR Program is Robert Smith, robert.l.smith6@navy.mil.

Aviation Air-Droppable At-Sea In-Water Lifting System Objective Develop an air-droppable at-sea in-water lifting system which can be air deployed from aircraft, land in the open ocean, self-erect and lift floating containers (international standard [ISO] shipping containers of 20 and 40 foot length) to the deck of vessels of varying freeboard. U.S. national and global security interests are protected by maintaining a (1) global forward presence and (2) the ability to rapidly deploy and sustain forces in any region of the world. Geo-political vicissitudes, budgetary realities, proliferation of technologies (offensive, defensive and detection), and expanding DoD distributed/disaggregated operations militate the development of alternatives/complements to traditional land-based options to support U.S. short-term, longer-term and crisis response activity. Foremost among alternatives is maritime Advanced Force Sea-Basing (AFSB)— temporary at-sea forward-operating bases. AFSBs vary immensely depending on operational requirements and environments; few will be sufficiently equipped to undertake at-sea recovery of containers. In order to maximize the efficacy of AFSBs and other vessels of opportunity, DoD requires the ability to lift ISO shipping containers floating in the open ocean to the decks of vessels of varying freeboard and configuration; the lifting system must be platform-agnostic. Neither current nor state-of-the-art maritime heavy-lift systems provide the capability to support this requirement. Beyond land-based heavy-lift considerations, at-sea heavy-lift is faced with unique environmental factors, including: wave force, height and action; current; simultaneous dual platform roll, pitch and yaw; sea water corrosiveness; and the impact of these dynamics on lift. The objective is to develop an in-water heavy-lift prototype capable of fulfilling the following parameters:

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Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy

• Air deployable from C-130, C-5 and C-17 aircraft (to include meeting all U.S. heavy-lift aircraft transport and airdrop parameters) • Configurable to fit within and be air-dropped in an ISO [or smaller] container • Self-erecting (i.e., once in the ocean, the lift system can be assembled and made ready to operate (1) without assistance from the supported platform [except final maneuvering into position adjacent to and/or mooring to the supported platform], (2) with a minimum number of personnel [not to exceed four] and (3) with support from no more than two small craft, each equipped with a maximum 1 x 35 horsepower outboard motor [or equivalent]). • Lift capacity weight: up to 20 tons • height: up to 10 meters freeboard • Operating conditions: operational up to Beaufort Scale 4 [winds 13 - 17 mph; wave height 3.5 - 6 ft; small waves with breaking crests; fairly frequent whitecaps] • Recoverable and reusable • Deployable from surface vessels This leap-ahead technology would also have tremendous utility to other public sector, non-governmental organizations and commercial applications.

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Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV) Passive Acoustic Sensing and Magnetic Anomaly Detection for AntiSubmarine Warfare (ASW) Objective Develop an effective, flexible and affordable submarine detection system consisting of acoustic sensing and a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) capability for a vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (VTUAV) to be used by any ship capable of launching and recovering a VTUAV (e.g., Fire Scout or equivalent capabilities). The current approach to air platform submarine detection is deployment of dipping sonars from MH-60 helicopters, full-size sonobuoys deployed from MH-60 helicopters and land-based P-3 aircraft, and MAD on fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. While effective, these approaches are labor-intensive, consume large amounts of fuel and are costly. In addition, platforms such as the littoral combat ships (LCS) that carry only one ASW-equipped helicopter have a less than optimal ASW capability. The Navy has identified a need for an ultra-lightweight airborne deployment/retrieval sensor acoustic sensor capability in a “podded” system. This system can then be installed and removed rapidly on an MQ-8C Fire Scout VTUAV to provide an adjunct ASW capability for the MH-60R. The proposed system will provide a low-cost, lightweight, unmanned capability to complement current helicopter ASW operations. This topic seeks a compact, affordable, energy-efficient, acoustic sensing capability for a Fire Scout, or similar VTUAV. In addition, the VTUAV will use a magnetic anomaly detector to complement the acoustic search for submarines. The desired system will increase the affordability of anti-submarine searches by lowering overall cost that currently requires a helicopter such as the MH-60. In addition, an unmanned aerial vehicle does not require an on-board crew. The proposed system should be usable by any ship capable of launching and recovering a VTUAV. The system would employ the VTUAV to perform acoustic sensing ahead of the host ship. The sensing could be standalone or as part of a bi-static system, with the active source on the host ship or on a different platform. The system could employ a tethered approach for sensor deployment and retrieval or a traditional air launch deployment or combination. Littoral combat ships have particular platforms of interest, though the VTUAV capability would not be restricted to a LCS. The technologies for ASW acoustic sensing and magnetic anomaly detection are mature. Offerors are encouraged to consider using or adapting existing sensing and deployment technologies as much as possible. The innovation described in this topic requires several considerations. One is the design, development and integration into the VTUAV of a compact, reliable, affordable system. A second includes launch and/or retrieval of acoustic capability. A third is designing to the size, weight and power (SWaP) limitations of a VTAUV (SWaP requirements will be provided in a SITIS document). A fourth is minimizing the effects of noise from the VTAUV. A fifth is the fusion of acoustic and magnetic field data. In addition, the fused data must interface with the VTAUV’s data communication and vehicle control system on the host ship.

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Small Non-Cooperative Collision Avoidance Systems Suited to Small Tactical Unmanned Systems Objective Develop a non-cooperative compact collision avoidance system with space, weight and power (SWaP) characteristics suited for a small tactical Group 2/3 unmanned aerial system (UAS). New Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules for next-generation (NextGen) national airspace surveillance strategy, which are set to be implemented by 2020, will strengthen the requirements for most aircraft, in most airspace, to determine their position via satellite navigation and periodically broadcast it out for receipt by air traffic control ground stations as well as other aircraft. Aircraft will be required to have at least one of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) “out” standards, either 1090 or 978 megahertz (MHz), to broadcast their position and velocity data. The data is broadcast every second, providing real-time position information that will, in most cases, be more accurate than the information provided by the primary and secondary radar-based systems currently in use. Aircraft-to-aircraft ADS-B transmission will also permit highly reliable self-separation and collision avoidance for any aircraft outfitted with dual frequency ADS-B “in,” enabling the aircraft to avoid other aircraft that are “co-operating” in the environment. However, there will remain in all airspace aircraft that are not transmitting ADS-B “out.” These may be aircraft that either do not have a transmitter, or have a transmitter that is turned off or has failed. These non-cooperating aircraft will continue to pose a collision hazard for UAS. A collision avoidance system that does not rely solely on cooperating aircraft that are ADS-B equipped is needed to ensure safe integration of UAS into the airspace. This system should ideally utilize ADS-B and in all aspects provide information for pilot oversight, self-separation and collision avoidance. It should additionally provide a fully autonomous selfseparation and collision avoidance capability as an option of last resort. Non-cooperative approaches have included visible and infrared camera systems, acoustic systems, radar systems and other radio frequency distance measuring technologies. The advent of software-definable radios could potentially lead to an effective RF non-cooperative collision avoidance system with a small SWaP suitable for use with even small UAS. The solution will be required to fit on a Group 2/3 UAS (such as the Aerosonde, Scan Eagle, RQ-21A Blackjack or RQ-7B Shadow air vehicles and systems). An additional project goal would be compatibility with smaller Group 1 Small Unit Remote Scouting Systems such as the RQ-20A Puma, RQ-11B Raven and RQ-12A Wasp family of systems. For a non-cooperative collision avoidance system to be accepted as a component technology of a Group 2 or Group 3 UAS, the SWaP consumption is a critical parameter. To be compatible with Small Tactical UAS, the solution needs to have a small SWaP allowing for mission payloads and a low cost for baseline UAS system incorporation. Given the payload capacity of Scan Eagle (a Group 2 UAS) is on the order of 7.5 pounds at 60 watts, it is expected the SWaP for a non-cooperative collision avoidance system be a fraction of this capacity. All airborne hardware should weigh less than 12 ounces and consume less than 27 cubic inches of total space, with an average power draw of less than 25 watts. The collision avoidance system hardware can be distributed to various locations on the air vehicle but cannot significantly affect weight

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and balance or aerodynamic performance. A range of 2 to 5 miles for small RF cross-section targets is needed. All UAS flyable weather performance is desired. Successful laboratory demonstration by simulation of software-inthe-loop and/or hardware-in-the-loop would be the first step towards a successful product. Desired next-level testing would include air demonstrations in a restricted airspace environment, ideally in conjunction with a fully instrumented test range. These range demonstrations would be used to document the mission readiness and expected mission effectiveness of the system prior to testing in operational environments. Good results from restricted range testing would provide the leverage to help with the safety case for the use of UAS for emergency course of action response. The results would also be applicable for improvements in the integrated UAS mission capability for all military applications.

Command and Control of Multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles in AntiAccess Area-Denial or Highly Limited Communication Bandwidth Environment Objective Design and develop software that provides the capability to autonomously and dynamically adapt to varying anti-access area-denial (A2AD) bandwidth-limited environments to ensure the transmission of critical information content for command and control (C2) decisions, as well as other mission-critical data, in a multiple unmanned vehicle mission environment. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations require bandwidth that can vary for a variety of reasons, including different mission phases, different geographic locations and attenuation of signals (both intentional and unintentional). To maximize the use of finite resources for C2 and make the systems more resilient, a software-defined tool that monitors behavior and dynamically allocates bandwidth utilization to optimize critical messages in a multiple UAV mission environment is needed. The software tool should be designed to interface with program of record systems, like Automated Digital Network System, that can handle the actual routing of digitized C2 information. It is prudent before proceeding to examine current technology regarding this bandwidth-limited operational capability. Many technical references are available that focus on the A2AD bandwidth limitation topic, but a software tool in support of C2 for multiple UAV missions within A2AD or bandwidth-limited environment does not currently exist. Current technology often builds upon basic concepts like quality of service, and solutions are desired that provide more robustness flexibility and higher performance. Development should be focused on enabling applications to utilize existing and evolving standards, like Naval Interoperability Profile Standards (NIOPS), for both multiple unmanned vehicle control and mission management. The desired software tool should be able to automatically react to changes in bandwidth by both prioritizing and optimizing the data being transmitted within the operational context of the

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supported unmanned vehicles. The software should also automatically transmit previously established prioritized information in varying levels of bandwidth-restricted environments. Methods could involve reduced frequency of transmission, reducing the type and/or fields of data transmitted, or other techniques that would allow the tool to react to the variability of the limitations and thus maximize available bandwidth. Additionally, the tool should allow the operator the option to override the autonomous dynamic functionality and manually control settings related to throughput or rate of transmission. All user interfaces should be simple and intuitive to reduce operator workload. The software tool is expected to be integrated into the Common Control System, which is developed and managed by PMA-281, a NAVAIR Program Office responsible for strike planning and mission execution systems. Note that due to the distribution restriction, the NIOPS standards document, titled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Vehicle Management Advanced Command and Control (VM-ADV-C2) Navy Interoperability Profile (NIOP),â&#x20AC;? will be provided to companies awarded a Phase I contract.

Automated Test Program Set Analysis for Maintenance Data Metrics Generation Objective Develop a novel method for extracting usage metrics from test program set (TPS) source code and automated test equipment (ATE) logs. The Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS) family of testers currently hosts more than 1,500 TPSs in support of the testing and repair of avionics and weapon system units under test, spanning numerous aircraft platforms. Several hundred additional TPSs are also slated for development. This has resulted in a large pool of TPS code and associated data, stored in the Navyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Automatic Test System (ATS) Source Data Repository. This data is viewed as an untapped resource to aid in ATS planning and support. The ability to relate test instrument capabilities to TPS source data and ATS usage data would provide a comprehensive look at how avionics maintenance is performed. Data mining on this comprehensive data set could serve to expose run-time inefficiencies or under- and over-utilized test equipment (or specific capability ranges within a piece of equipment), providing significant benefit to the selection of new ATS components during replacements and upgrades. Broad questions could be answered about ATS component capabilities, including not only the frequency of their use but also the manner. Additionally, such an analysis could identify economic targets of opportunity for the deployment of new and innovative test techniques. Complexities in the execution of TPSs present frequent challenges to the analysis of the data sets. TPS instrument settings can be variable, not hard-coded. These variables are often set procedurally, but other times are set via manual input from the ATS user. This product should be capable of assigning TPS variables regardless of their dependencies. Development of such a capability poses a technical challenge that is part test simulation and part data mining/analysis. Once every TPS can be simulated and their results archived, a total envelope of all ATS instrument usage can be generated.

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Innovative, Low-Cost, Highly Durable Fuel Bladder for Naval Applications Objective Develop an innovative, low-cost, lightweight, highly durable fuel bladder for naval applications through a quicker, more repeatable manufacturing process. A fuel bladder is a flexible internal aircraft structure containing fuel to be provided to the engine(s). The fuel bladder must be foldable so that it can be installed through small cavity openings on the aircraft. Metal fittings are incorporated into the fuel bladder to allow interface to the aircraft fuel system. The bladder must also be durable enough to prevent a rupture of the bladder and fuel leakage from flight or maintenance induced stresses. Quality fuel bladders are imperative for the safety of warfighters. Any fuel leaks during operational flight lead to a risk of fire, which could result in the loss of aircraft and crew. On many platforms, the Navy’s demand for fuel bladders is higher than the rate that the current fuel bladder manufacturer is able to supply. Additionally, the state of the art in fuel bladder manufacturing is a handmade artisandependent process that can take up to 60 days to complete. This process is subject to human error, often requiring significant rework of the finished product, which results in expensive end products and long build times. This rework can include, but is not limited to, repairs such as patches, buffing and fitting replacement. An innovative, lightweight fuel bladder material and/or process that will decrease fuel bladder costs and improve product quality is needed. The result should be a quicker, more repeatable manufacturing process, and should increase fuel bladder durability by allowing for high puncture resistance, abrasion resistance and tensile strength while maintaining the required flexibility. Proposed designs must be compatible with any fuel used by the Navy, including JP-5, commercial Jet A (with military additives) and a 50/50 blend of current jet fuel and bio-derived fuel. Proposed designs must also have self-sealing capability. A production representative fuel bladder must be constructed from the proposed materials. A more consistent material and process will yield higher-quality fuel bladders, which will help reduce the downtime of aircraft, thus improving the capability of the warfighter.

Sensory System for the Transition from Aided to Unaided Vision During Flight to Mitigate Spatial Discordance Objective Develop a system to seamlessly transition from aided to unaided vision while performing night operations. When pilots transition from aided to unaided vision during flight, the number of visual cues that can be used as reference for aircraft attitude is greatly reduced. If this occurs during nights with very low ambient light, spatial discordance can occur. Rapid transition from aided to unaided sight reduces the number of peripheral visual cues from many to few, which can lead to spatial disorientation and unsafe flight. Dark adaptation, or the ability to perceive low-level light, can take as long as half an hour.

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Other cues that indicate the attitude of the aircraft must be made present to mitigate the effects of night vision aides on the visual system, where a light-adapted eye must quickly transition to extremely dark conditions. A lack of sufficient peripheral visual orientation cues may lead to a number of spatial discordance issues (e.g., black-hole effect). Peripheral visual cues are reduced during night or white-out (atmospheric or blowing snow) conditions. In either case, the lack of peripheral visual cues leads to disorientation. Another situation in which pilots require peripheral visual cues is when approaching and closing in on another aircraft (e.g., in-flight refueling). Pilots use peripheral cues to estimate their relative position to the earth and the aircraft to which they are approaching. Without this peripheral information, as it occurs in extremely dark conditions, closing in on another aircraft becomes significantly more challenging and potentially dangerous. Currently, pilots rely on the plane’s attitude indicator, a visual representation of the plane’s position relative to the horizon, when experiencing spatial discordance. This visual cue provides information to the foveal visual field and does not take advantage of the benefits of cuing peripheral sensory receptors. Although this information is quite salient in the foveal visual field, pilots report dismissing this information since the vestibular cues they experience provide more compelling evidence of their (incorrect) spatial orientation. As previously mentioned, peripheral visual cues are a major contributor to maintaining straight and level flight and avoiding spatial discordance. More recent research, however, has demonstrated that spatial information can be improved with multimodal (i.e., vision, hearing, tactile) stimulus presentation. With the appropriate combination of more than one stimulus modality, humans can orient themselves more quickly and accurately than with the activation of one sensory modality alone. Technology with the ability to provide a pilot transitioning from aided to unaided flight with additional stimuli to maintain a straight, level and safe flight is needed. This technology should be able to be activated at the pilot’s discretion and suitable for different platforms that have different requirements and constraints. At a minimum, however, this project should be applicable to Navy fifth-generation fighter aircraft. Since the only fifth-generation fighter in the current inventory is the F-35 Lightning II, this technology should be compatible with the current cockpit design and successfully integrate with the baseline pilot-vehicle interface. If possible, the technology should extend to previous generation fighters and other aircraft (e.g., helicopters). Collaboration with original equipment manufacturers in all phases is highly encouraged to assist in defining aircraft integration, commercialization requirements, and providing test platforms. The stimulation of more than one sensory system (e.g., vision, hearing) is not required, but only illustrated as an example.

Low-Power, Low-Cost, Lightweight, Multichannel Optical Fiber Interrogation Unit for Structural Health Management of Rotor Blades Objective The main rotor blades and associated rotating hardware are some of the highest dynamically loaded parts found on rotorcraft. These dynamic parts have historically been hard to instrument without a significant weight penalty and are often inspected at intervals. A system capable

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of monitoring true strains, as well as damaging impacts during rotorcraft operation, without the usually associated weight penalties would have enormous benefits. Usage information taken from this system would enable health and usage monitoring of the rotor system, allowing maintainers to be alerted when components are about to show signs of degradation, resulting in increased safety and reduction in unnecessary maintenance. Additionally, faster maintenance turnaround would translate into improved aircraft availability and lower life cycle costs.

withstand the high vibrations and loads found in a naval rotor system in which it will be installed. The interrogator must be able to accurately resolve the large blade strains produced by a helicopter blade, and be able to obtain data from each sensor at a rate of at least 1 kHz. The interrogator must also be able to operate efficiently, drawing no more than 3 watts of power.

Optical fiber sensors could be used for the monitoring of strain levels, vibrations and temperature in a rotor blade. In order to perform impact detection, degradation diagnostics and fatigue damage monitoring, the low weight of the fiber sensor, and its immunity to electrical interference are major benefits to this sensing method. In addition, these optical fibers can be embedded into composite fiber blades during their construction, giving them a layer of protection from environmental factors. Optical fibers can measure much larger strain ranges than traditional foil strain gages. An optical fiber system could also be used to assist blade tracking. By embedding these sensors into a rotor blade, the safety and cost of rotorcraft operations would be greatly improved. This condition-based maintenance functionality is in line with current Navy programs like the CH-53K Integrated Hybrid Structural Management Systems, which is an effort aimed at developing rotorcraft airframe and rotor system structural health management capabilities. The sensor interrogator is the major component within the optical fiber system which drives the weight and power requirements. Missionready helicopter load-outs avoid slip rings due to their unnecessary weight and complexity; a fiber system, therefore, must be able to use the limited power available from energy harvesting methods. With a weight of several pounds (and high power requirements), commercial interrogator units are unusable in the dynamic rotorcraft environment. An interrogator that is much lighter and smaller than these commercial units is desired. The system must be of low volume (less than 200 cm3) and weight (no greater than 0.33 kg), and be capable of interrogating an optical fiber containing 15 sensing locations in a single blade, and have no moving parts. The sensor interrogator should also be able to

Submarine and Anti-Submarine

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Digital Direction Finding System for the Next-Generation Submarine Electronic Warfare Objective Develop a new submarine imaging mast direction-finding (DF) capability for the next-generation submarine electronic warfare (EW) system. All combatant commands (COCOM) have identified EW and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) improvements to support force application and battlespace awareness as one of their highest priorities. For submarines to meet the future COCOM ISR requirements they will need to improve the direction-finding capability in the imaging mast. The proposed solutions to improve submarine DF must conform to open standards and approaches in the hardware and software design that shall readily support technological and functional advancement of the systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capabilities. DF is critical to improved situational awareness, ISR mission effectiveness, and overall ship safe operations, particularly in the littoral operating regions. The next-generation submarine EW system requires a DF capability that will be included in all future systems. This DF system will need to use common RF components, data pathways and processing capabilities to be included in the next-generation architecture. It will need to be modular, scalable and fit into the digital framework and current and future submarine mast configurations. The current DF system for Virginia-class submarines has six spiral DF horns that feed into a task-tuned filtered bank (500 MHz instantaneous bandwidth) that provides an intermediate frequency that is converted to video via a set of SDLVAs (successive detection log video amplifiers). Each of these six video lines are available inboard for DF processing. Unfortunately, this current design severely limits the DF capability across the broad spectrum of radar emission operating today. Current submarine DF capabilities are closely Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy coupled with the radar wideband components

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in a stovepiped architecture. The current architecture does not allow for cost-effective improvements in system performance and the introduction of new capabilities without significant impact to the existing system. Another limitation of the current configuration is that RF information (for the DF antennas) is turned to video in the mast and therefore only video (amplitude) processing can be performed with the equipment below decks. The next-generation submarine EW system will need to provide direction-finding applications and solutions using available data from the existing DF arrays. This data will be defined through the interface layer of the new architecture, allowing algorithms in the processing layer to be developed for increased accuracy and capability. The challenge is to improve direction finding in the constrained environment of submarine apertures and the RF environment. The use of digital data is preferred, but the space constraint for turning the DF spiral RF into digital data is a confined space outboard of 3” x 3” x 10”. It is preferred that DF improvements are predominately software-based solutions, but hardware and software solutions will be entertained. The small business will have to work closely with the government to ensure that the proposed solutions are feasible in the current (and future) submarine mast constraints (extremely small volumes and very thick radomes).

Threat Suitability Tactical Decision Aid for Anti-Submarine Warfare Objective The amount of information available to accomplish the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission has been increasing significantly in the last 10 years, and there is a broad spectrum of information available for analysis to help in solving the ASW problem. When an ASW threat executes a mission against U.S. Navy forces, the opposing force (OPFOR) commander must consider the environment, tactical situation, ownship capabilities and mission objectives to develop a course of action. This process will involve trade-offs where one factor, such as required proximity to a high-value target, is offset by another factor, such as increased detection vulnerability. The technology to explore and evaluate these types of trade-offs has been developed for wide-ranging applications, including location recommendation systems for business sites, evaluation of animal habits and urban land use planning. Perhaps the most relevant to ASW application is to identify potential crime areas based on suitability for criminal intent. These technologies represent the state of the art in geospatial suitability analysis. The basis of this project is to use whatever information technology is used today for predicting events—such as in high crime areas (among others)—by melding historical and in-situ data. We seek to adapt them and develop innovative new technologies applicable to ASW. By understanding how information affects OPFOR mission planning trade-off and by developing possible OPFOR courses of action (often termed red teaming), insights in to the geospatial suitability for OPFOR operations can be developed in order to provide enhanced situational awareness and more effective ASW mission planning. For example, this technology could provide understanding of what corridors are suitable for a covert transit, determine where high speeds can be maintained for expedient transits, and determine a good location to pump waste. U.S. Navy ASW personnel have gained the ability to assess potential threat

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trade-offs through years of experience. Their expertise will be used to define trade-offs in the TDA and to assist the operators by providing rapid and comprehensive initial assessment of possible threat locations, enabling the operator to reduce the time to develop mission plans and maintain a higher level of situational awareness. The desired TDA technologies will provide knowledge representations, geospatial models, and reasoning algorithms that capture this experience and apply it to the current tactical picture in order to understand the suitability of threat operations occurring across an area of interest. The TDA is required to operate with current tactical, environmental and operational data sources, and provide results in a concise format within the ASW mission systems. The small businesses will need to establish a baseline of current performance in particular scenarios provided by the government to be used for comparison purposes. This understanding will provide ASW commanders with a sound expectation of where OPFOR assets may be operating, enhancing their ability to locate and counter those threats.

Wideband Acoustic Signature Capability for Next Generation Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Target Objective Develop a transducer system that will provide the wideband acoustic signature required for the next-generation small-diameter expendable mobile training target that will satisfy the training needs of all current and potential users. Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training is significantly more effective when air, surface and sub-surface platforms and their ASW sonar crews train in the operational environment in which they would locate enemy submarines. Training against live submarines is costly and most often not available. Mobile ASW training targets fill this critical training need. Naval forces need to be trained with new and sophisticated technologies that simulate real-world conditions and scenarios to effectively counter future undersea threats. A next-generation small-diameter mobile ASW training target which emulates realistic threat signatures is in the development stage. It must encompass low cost, a relatively small size, maximum achievable bandwidth and source level. The transducer suite is the most significant challenge in developing this target. As transducer size decreases, particularly the diameter, it becomes considerably more difficult to achieve the bandwidth and source levels required to emulate such signatures. The goal of this SBIR is to achieve large bandwidth and source level via unique, innovative designs incorporating a small size transducer. The current mobile target systems are of the 21-inch-diameter heavyweight variety, such as the Mk30 Mod 1 target. The expendable mobile anti-submarine training target (EMATT) does not provide the acoustic signature spectrum and level for the current requirement. The EMATT diameter is 4.85 inches, which is a limiting factor for signature generation. The next-generation target will be larger in diameter than the EMATT, yet smaller than the heavyweight 21-inch, accommodating the latest transducer technology. The Navy’s intent is to receive innovative technologies from the small business in order to provide the design,

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development and integration of a transducer system that would accommodate low-cost virtues but provide the acoustic capabilities analogous of the heavyweight ASW target. The small business should explore systems within the threshold maximum outside diameter (OD) of 12.75 inches and propose alternate smaller diameter versions with an objective of a suite to fit in a 6-inch OD target. A path to fit the proposed transducer system into a 4.875-inch-diameter form factor is also of interest. The major areas of consideration are small diameter, low cost, maximum frequency cover and maximum source level. The goal is the capability to replicate the threat signature performance of the mobile training target, Mk 30 Mod 1. Current technology has advanced beyond the transducer types in use by the heavyweight ASW targets. Various known unique designs promise substantial improvement over the current device capabilities. Identifying or referencing such designs is intentionally omitted here to preclude appearance of a preferred candidate solution. Consideration should be given to minimize the size and cost with the maximization of frequency coverage and source level.

Submarine Component Design Tool to Assess Relative Resistance to High-Intensity Loading Objective Develop an innovative and cost-effective automated software design and qualification tool to comparatively assess submarine components ability to withstand high-intensity loadings. The Navy requires submarine components, internal and external, to withstand a specified level of high-intensity loading to comply with shock requirements. Compliance with shock requirements is accomplished through standard testing or detailed analyses that seek to estimate the response of components to high-intensity loading in an absolute sense. In special cases where a new component is shown to be similar to a previously shock qualified component, its ability to withstand highintensity loading may be demonstrated by a comparison to the previously shock-qualified component. This comparison process is defined as shock qualification by extension. Though an extension is the lowest cost option in shock qualification, it has limited use as a design tool. This SBIR seeks innovative and cost-effective design means which will allow equipment manufacturers to design equipment without the need for high-cost testing or forcing the design to be similar to older, previously qualified items. The developed means of comparison must account for ranges of potential differences in components, including physical differences, mounting conditions and orientations. A successful assessment method will address parameters relevant to high-intensity shock loadings and will be developed into an automated software tool that, when coupled with the knowledge of qualified component and new component properties, can be implemented by a designer or Navy engineer to determine which of the two components is more resistant to high-intensity loadings. The process and methodology envisioned to get a solution in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s digitally-designed environment qualification by finite element analysis (FEA) enables another tool to be developed to compare a qualified design with a modified design. That comparison tool will allow one to approve or disapprove the new modified designâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;thereby eliminating a whole new

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FEA or test program. FEA uses stress analysis to determine pass/fail. This new tool will compare stresses between the two models. The automated software tool will be used as a design development tool in the design phase of submarine programs and, if applicable, as a shock qualification tool. A successful automated software tool will reduce submarine design costs by tens of millions of dollars and be a catalyst to submarine component adaptively. This can be demonstrated using any number of test parameters for the sake of proving a concept before using real (and potentially classified) or simulated data.

Chart Data Overlay of Live Video for Submarine Navigation Objective Develop an augmented-reality view capability for live periscope video that creates a clearer view in littoral waters. The Navy needs an augmented-reality capability that overlays chart data and navigation lines of concern on live submarine periscope video. Navigation of submarines in and out of port can be challenging due to local boating traffic and littoral water hazards. Modern submarines are now using the Voyage Management System, which supplies digital nautical charts to the submarine crew. The charts show all the buoys, aids and hazards of navigation to the navigation team. The Navy seeks to improve this navigation capability further by overlaying chart data and navigation lines-of-concern onto live periscope video to create an augmented-reality view when piloting. Adding these features will aid the navigation team decision-making and recommendations to the bridge. Augmented-reality technology is being developed for several commercial and military applications. Commercial technologies include applications for smartphones that use the smartphoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Global Positioning System and compass to display augmented-reality markers for nearby restaurants, bars and other businesses in real time. Professional football games are broadcast with augmented-reality markers such as first down lines. The Navy seeks to leverage computer gaming technology and/or geographic information systems to achieve this capability. This topic seeks to identify innovative approaches to achieve an augmented-reality view of periscope imagery while piloting a submarine. The algorithms should be capable of operating on video from the full spectrum of imaging sensors, including visible color, near-infrared, short-wave infrared, mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared sensors in multiple formats, including standard and high definition. The preferred implementation of this algorithm is in the form of a software program capable of running on general purpose processors.

Automated Visual Detection of Small Contacts on the Horizon Objective Develop an innovative automated detection capability for Navy submarine combat systems to detect possible contacts at long ranges at, or near, the horizon.

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The Navy seeks an automated visual detection software capability to improve 360-degree situational awareness for its submarine fleet. Littoral operations frequently involve navigating around a large number of marine contacts, such as fishing fleets, which may be intermingled with potentially hostile targets. Manual visual detection of small contacts and long-range contacts on, or near, the horizon from low vantage points while sweeping the periscope through 360 degrees is difficult for periscope operators. Environmental conditions on the ocean can make the manual contact detection process even more difficult. Commercial radar used by ships for situational awareness cannot be applied to submarines at periscope depth. Digital imaging systems offer the potential for rapid and accurate contact detection at longer ranges than manual visual detection. Previous attempts at visual ship detection have been limited to larger contacts, high vantage points and other imaging systems such as buoy cameras and stationary cameras in port. Innovative approaches of automatic detection of small- and/or longrange contacts at or near the horizon in difficult operating conditions including choppy seas, low visibility and a variety of weather conditions is needed. Contact sizes in the image may be approximately tens of pixels or less. The algorithms should be capable of operating on video from the full spectrum of imaging sensors including visible color, nearinfrared, short-wave infrared, mid-wave infrared and long-wave infrared sensors in multiple formats, including standard and high definition. The preferred implementation of these algorithms is in the form of a software program capable of running on general-purpose processors.

Submarine Meteorological Sensor Objective Develop an innovative approach to collect meteorological data for deep-diving submergible vessels in real time. The Navy is developing tools requiring access to meteorological data, such as humidity, wind and temperature, for use aboard submergible vessels. Currently, a naval vessel can receive weather reports which may contain inaccurate or untimely data. Weather has a significant impact on undersea vehicle mission execution. Outside of its impact on navigation, weather is an umbrella term for a set of parameters that defines the atmospheric medium in which electromagnetic signals pass, be it radar signals, satellite signals, communication signals and imaging signals, all of which are required functions within the mission space of an undersea vehicle. Undersea vehicles, either unmanned or submarines, currently have extremely limited ability to collect meteorological parameters. The capability proposed would be part of a command tool that would improve targeting, command and control of mission payloads, and situational awareness. The Navy desires an innovative approach to obtain the following weather information in real timeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, and sea/air temperature. Any sensors used would have to be survivable on a deep-diving vessel (and the inside of the submarine sail is free flooding), although data could be collected on the surface. Current state-of-the-art sensors are not able to survive deep submergence. The solution could be a new survivable sensor, but making use of existing radar, antenna or imaging systems has appeal,

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as these systems do not require new components. In addition, disposable buoys, which make use of the existing ability to launch expendable 3-inch-diameter buoys, would be an acceptable solution if cost-effective (less than $3,000 per unit in mass quantity). The challenge for submarine-mounted meteorological sensors is to find a way for the sensors to survive the rigorous environment of submarines if left to the elements, and then be able to operate when exposed above the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surface. The physics of meteorological sensors is predicated on the sensors being dry. Therefore, a way to keep the sensors dry or to have them quickly dry is paramount. Furthermore, the desired sets of meteorological parameters are not just localized to the near field (within a few feet), but also far field (i.e., out several miles). It would also be advantageous to vertically sample the atmosphere to locate and identify changes in atmospheric turbulence and properties over the viewable distance, which can impact electronic warfare operations and radar signals. The solution should be able to measure humidity, wind speed and direction, atmospheric pressure, and sea/air temperature in real time with accuracy similar to state-of-the-art land-based sensors, make use of existing sensor and launch systems if appropriate, and cost under $3000 in mass quantity of a disposable sensor. The Phase I effort will not require access to classified information. If need be, data of the same level of complexity as secured data will be provided to support Phase I work. The Phase II effort will likely require secure access, and NAVSEA will support the contractor for personnel and facility certification for secure access.

Next-Generation Electronic Warfare Human Machine Interface for Submarines Objective To develop an intuitive, responsive and open human machine interface (HMI) system for submarine electronic warfare (EW) AN/BLQ-10B (V) for increased operator efficiency and decision-making for submarine operators. The Navy seeks an innovative approach to improve machine-tooperator interfaces in both traditional and innovative displays for operator interaction with data and system functions to provide the most comprehensive and intuitive controls and displays for operator use. This system should provide easy integration with new applications and features to increase operator functionality without increasing the operator/system interaction. The system must be modular and easily extensible to allow for future growth as the AN/BLQ-10 adds or improves functionality and data sources. The purpose of HMIs are to allow the EW operator to intuitively interact with the radio frequency (RF) environment and reduce the operatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manual interaction with the system while significantly improving emission classification and correlation. While the current submarine operational environment becomes increasingly complex and dense, the AN/BLQ-10 (submarine EW system) operator would be capable of providing accurate and timely information to the control room decisionmakers for improved situational awareness. With the current submarine EW system becoming increasingly complex (coupled with a denser more complex electromagnetic operational environment), operators will need to have faster interaction with the system in ways that are more

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intuitive, and accurately show the electromagnetic environment, allowing quicker data processing for decision-making and increased operator mission performance. The challenge for the EW operator is to provide the control room decision-makers with timely, relevant and accurate reports to improve situational awareness. The solution should also focus on improved operational performance, effectiveness and operator workload reduction. These HMI modules must be able to consume and display organic (data collected from on board sensors) and inorganic (data that originates from off board sensors) data sets of varying types. Data sets can range from processed answers (sonar solutions, ESM emitter reports) to raw digital sets (pulse descriptor words, continuous digital intermediate frequency, burst digital IF, or in-phase/quadrature data). These displays can range from processed near real-time data to real-time data displays.

Organic Submarine Multi-Sensor Fusion Objective Develop an automated organic submarine multi-sensor data fusion capability for submarine sensor systems that meets submarine tactical group requirements. Submarine combat systems require manual processes and procedures to assimilate information gathered by physical sensors into a tactical picture. The tactical picture is used by a submarine’s command team and crew to understand and respond to the operating environment. To generate the tactical picture, the submarine crew evaluates contact or track information across sensor classes for a number of factors related to similarities in kinematic and spectral properties. If properties across tracks are sufficiently correlated, contacts are “fused.” This process provides more information for tactical-level tracking to improve the track and reduce the number of contacts improving situational clarity, enabling the submarine’s command team and crew to understand and respond to the operating environment more effectively. Fully automated systems exist in a variety of DoD, DHS and commercial systems. Radar systems are such an example. However, providing a unified tactical picture through sensors with weak range resolution in contact-rich environments while searching for weak and elusive targets remains a difficult problem. Submarine sonar systems are an example of this. Providing a solution remains difficult. This topic pursues a software subsystem that would interact with the tactical system of a submarine to fully automate data fusion techniques to produce a tactical picture through association of contact information across multiple sensors, both acoustic and non-acoustic. Although automated association of all contacts all of the time is extremely difficult, if not impossible, there are many cases where sufficient information is available to produce high-confidence associations and to improve the command teams understanding of a contact’s position and velocity. For example, existence of strong narrowband content across spectrally overlapped acoustic sensors is useful to initiate and maintain association of two independent sensor-level tracks for the purposes of generating a single composite fused contact. The small business will need to develop a collection of physicsbased techniques operating within a probabilistic framework designed

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to exploit contact features across both similar and dissimilar sensing systems and innovations on what data can be fused reliably. For example, it should be clear that acoustic data from an array of towed hydrophones is unlikely to share any spectral information with optical data from the periscope; however, environmental effects may encode closing geometry characteristics in both the acoustic and optical data. Also, for example, raw spectral information from a towed sensor may not permit a direct signature-level correlation with a hull-mounted sensor due to separation in the operating spectra; however, known engine characteristics may allow the determination that these different separate spectral bands hold narrow band components of a common mechanical origin. The approach to interface with the hosting tactical control system should be best suited to the proposed data fusing concept(s) and should provide salient metrics to measure and monitor in-situ. Like few other platforms, the submarine is vitally dependent on its sensors during periods of total submersion. Collecting, associating and assimilating acoustic data to generate the tactical and operational picture is the highest priority. Means to use non-acoustic sensor data to compare and fuse acoustic evidence is desired for periods when the submarine is at periscope depth; however, this is a secondary consideration. Of great importance to any concept transitioning to operational use will be a means to provide confidence to the command team and crew that the automated systems are working correctly and accurately. A critical factor for success is then a demonstrable means for the concept to provide transparency to the operator on all facets of the data collection, association and assimilation. In addition to this transparency, a means to “self-regulate” is of equal importance. We define self-regulation as the property of the system to assess inputs and accurately characterize its fused contact output in terms of uncertainty or confidence. Empirical and analytic techniques for this self-assessment are well-known. A successful concept must then self-regulate to report when operational thresholds for confidence are not satisfactory to remain under automated contact fusion. Effective approaches will provide a means for rapid and effective operator interaction with the system to act when manual attention is required.

Active Signal Processing Enhancements for Classification of Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Sonar Signals in Doppler Clutter Objective Develop innovative signal processing algorithms for Doppler-sensitive waveform processing that improve detection and classification. The Navy is seeking to develop signal and information processing for improved performance of Doppler processing in the presence of stationary clutter, ownship-induced clutter and active interference. Innovative signal and information-processing algorithms are sought to improve overall performance for continuous wave (CW) pulsed waveform processing. Of particular interest are low signal-to-noise ratio signals near the clutter ridge. These approaches should seek to improve the probability of detection and classification while decreasing false alert rate and operator workload. Approaches might include signal

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processing techniques such as beam-forming or statistical signal processing, mismatch filtering approaches, and others. Information processing improvements may include feature extraction and processing, multi-target tracking, and operator tools and displays. Mid-frequency pulsed active sonar (MF PAS) systems exploit the Doppler sensitivity of certain waveforms (for example, narrowband CW pulses) to aid in detection and classification of submarine and torpedo targets. Spectrogram processing of beam time series data of CW pulses isolates stationary clutter (such as bottom clutter and volume reverberation) to frequency bins near zero Doppler offset. This results in the familiar zero Doppler clutter ridge. In theory, signal echoes with sufficient Doppler can be detected and classified with high confidence, provided there is adequate frequency separation from the clutter ridge. In practice, the range-Doppler surface is cluttered by much more than stationary clutter. Ownship motion leads to a spectral spreading of bottom reverberation, resulting in “shoulders” of elevated noise surrounding the clutter ridge. This suppresses or masks weak contacts even when there is separation from the clutter ridge. Active interference from nearby transmitters appears as discrete broadband impulses in the processing band of interest. These and other sources of spectral splatter adversely affect detection, tracking and classification capabilities. Adaptive beamformers have been used to reject interference and narrow the frequency extent of the clutter ridge, but are still subject to degraded performance in regions dominated by ownship motioninduced reverberation.

Using Environmental Information in State Estimation for Undersea Systems Objective Develop an automated state estimation capability for undersea systems that exploits physical environmental characteristics to improve target motion analysis and to avoid detection through exploiting the environment. A submarine is vitally dependent on its acoustic sensors during periods of total submersion. Because of this, collecting, associating and assimilating acoustic data to generate the tactical and operational picture depends greatly on the effects of the acoustic environment. While acoustic tactical decision aids have been available and in use for years, currently limited research and development is available to reliably exploit environmental information in an automated manner to improve contact range and velocity estimation processes. This topic will pursue more fully automated signal and information processing techniques to leverage environmental knowledge such as propagation paths, boundary interactions and other physical phenomena to aid in target localization and state estimation using acoustic sensors.

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Data comes from multiple sources in-situ, both organic (onboard) and non-organic (off board), as well as historical databases of the environment. These are all to be considered as part of this effort. State estimation, as commonly referred to in the tracking and fusion literature, is defined as a quantitative statement of an object’s position and velocity with a principled quantified characterization of uncertainty of these values as well as the possible inclusion of the target’s spectral properties. The small business should document the quantification methods and processes as part of their concept. Successful efforts must deal with uncertainties in the environment and physical processes affecting acoustic source localization. The Navy is pursuing innovative approaches to exploiting information about the environment to enable the Navy to estimate the distance to a contact held on passive radar. The physics of undersea acoustic propagation are well understood; a number of numerical and closed form methods exist that can be employed to aid both the operator and automated tracking and fusion processes to reduce target state estimate uncertainties. Approaches that address these physical processes directly in determining state estimates are more desirable than approaches that attempt to condition state estimates to account for the environment after the estimates are produced, since such approaches rarely address the accrual of environmental information over time. Efforts to improve state estimation can benefit from environmental information, such as the existence and location of convergence zones, as well as indications of ranges that are not possible because of an acoustic path blocked by some bathymetric feature. For example, the initialization of a target state estimate or “solution” stands to benefit from the use of this information once properly characterized in terms of the confidence in environmental knowledge. Of great importance to any concept, transitioning to operational use will be a means to provide confidence to the command team and crew that environmental processing is working correctly and accurately. The Navy is looking for innovative approaches to estimate the reliability of environmental data and processing efforts on target localization and state estimation. A critical factor for success is then a demonstrable means for the concept to provide transparency to the operator on all facets of the environmental effects on the state estimation. In addition to this

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transparency, a means to â&#x20AC;&#x153;self-regulateâ&#x20AC;? is of equal importance. We define self-regulation as the property of the system to assess inputs and accurately characterize its fused contact output in terms of uncertainty or confidence. Empirical and analytic techniques for this self-assessment are well-known. A successful concept must then self-regulate to report when operational thresholds for confidence are not satisfactory to remain under automated contact fusion. Effective approaches will provide a means for rapid and effective operator interaction with the system to act when manual attention is required.

Submarine Navigation in a GPS-Denied Environment Objective Develop an innovative approach to allow position fixing via existing outboard submarine sensors or new inboard sensors. GPS information is used to accurately localize position during navigation. In the event that GPS information is not available, an alternate solution is desirable to allow for accurate position fixing. The goal of this effort is to provide the submarine an alternate method for accurate geo-positioning when GPS is unavailable. Current practices rely on GPS signals received by sensors in the submarine antenna and basic navigational techniques. The solution is preferred to make use of existing sensorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;imagers, antenna, gyroscopes, etc., with only limited allowance for new associated inboard hardware support equipment (6 to 8 inches in a 19-inchdiameter rack that could be located inside the submarine hull, which allows for more flexibility). Solutions using existing available information from the fielded masts will always be more desirable. This SBIR topic seeks innovative ways to calculate position either within the constraints given above or through newly developed approaches. Examples such as, but not limited to, magnetic fields, astronomical observations, and lighting are all examples of desirable solutions. Use of active transmissions is not acceptable.

Automated Visual Location Fix for Submarine Navigation Objective Develop an automated visual location fix capability for submarine navigation systems that detect and recognize navigation aids used for visual fix. The Navy has a need for an automated fix capability in submarine combat systems. This capability will aid the submarine navigation team in decision-making and recommendations to the bridge while piloting the submarine in and out of ports.

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Navigation of submarines in and out of port can be challenging due to local boating traffic and littoral water hazards. Submarine navigation teams use navigation aids to make visual fixes to determine submarine location. This process can be both time-consuming and error-prone. The Navy seeks to automate the visual fix process to aid navigation, team decision-making and recommendations to the bridge. The use of digital imaging systems in submarine periscope masts allows the potential of automated pattern recognition technologies for recognizing and localizing navigation aids. Automated pattern recognition is complicated by the wide variety of types, shapes, colors and sizes of navigation aids existing in U.S. coastal waters and around the world today. The sheer number of navigation aids around the world, as well as environmental conditions and visual occlusion, also add to the degree of difficulty in the development of an automated fix capability. An innovative approach is needed to provide an automated visual location fix capability while piloting a submarine. The algorithm(s) should be capable of operating on video from the full spectrum of imaging sensors, including visible color, near-infrared, and short- and mid-wave infrared.

Automated Acoustic Monitoring System Objective Develop an automated acoustic monitoring system to evaluate sensor performance and platform noise with the objective of improving overall combat system performance. The U.S. Navy needs an improved automated acoustic monitoring system on surface ship combatants to better alert operators to degraded sensor performance and to monitor platform noise. The Navy combat system employs many underwater acoustic sensors and processing designed to detect threat vessels. The performance of these sensors must be maintained at a high level for the combat system to perform effectively. Many of the sensors are exposed to harsh envi-

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ronments and operating conditions that compromise performance. In addition, excessive radiated noise emitted from the platform may limit the performance of one or more of these sensors. The fleet operators must be made aware of these degradations as soon as possible so they can take corrective action. These actions may require the operator to run diagnostic procedures, modify a sensor processing configuration, rely more heavily on other sensors, and issue a casualty report when the problem is severe. The Navy system currently provides performance monitoring fault localization (PMFL) processed data for many of its acoustic sensors; however, in some cases it is not always clear to the operator what action should be taken. Condition-based maintenance (CBM) has been successful at monitoring the status of equipment to facilitate efficient maintenance and lower the total cost of ownership. Although CBM more commonly uses sensors to facilitate the maintenance of inboard equipment, related techniques could be used for the maintenance of acoustic sensors themselves. An innovative automated system is desired that will process acoustic PMFL data, assist the operator in assessing overall sensor status and recommend corrective actions. Additional PMFL processing techniques that help detect telemetry processing issues, electronic noise and other intermittent issues are needed. Proposed algorithms should be able to distinguish between a processing-induced artifact and real acoustic signal/transient in the water. The acoustic monitoring system will make recommendations to the operator to maximize overall acoustic performance while considering operational constraints and fault-tolerance of the current system software. For example, failed sensors can increase conventional beamformer (CBF) sidelobes. If too many sensors fail, CBF performance becomes compromised and array repairs are generally required. However, if the system uses adaptive beamforming that is more tolerant to failed sensors, perhaps array repairs can be deferred to a more convenient time. This example shows how PMFL action recommendations should consider the robustness of the system software that is running. Array self-noise measurements will provide additional sensor health insight as well as help gauge expected/maximum sensor performance. Improvements are sought for the array self-noise surveys to better automate how the data is recorded, disseminated and evaluated in support of regular maintenance activities. Approaches that account for operational and environment conditions such as ship speed, sea-state and shipping traffic are encouraged. The sensor monitoring system is required to be fully integrated with the entire processing system. Innovative ideas are sought in the following areas: signal processing; sensor performance measurement; sensor acoustic performance prediction; and automated processing resulting in improved operator awareness of sensor degradation and corrective action. Technologies developed under this topic may run standalone or will transition appropriately into existing software baselines such as the sensor performance prediction functional segment.

Deep Long-Life Passive Sonobuoy Sensor System Objective Develop a deep, long-life, passive sonobuoy sensor system that can be deployed by aircraft and used for undersea surveillance.

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The Navy is becoming increasingly interested in deploying acoustic sensing systems below critical depth in the ocean close to or on the ocean bottom in convergent zone type environments. At these depths, the ambient noise structure and sound propagation physics are unique and have the potential to be exploited by future undersea surveillance systems. The concept of utilizing deep sonobuoy systems is not new; in the 1970s, there were efforts to place sensors deep in the ocean. Two sonobuoy concepts were considered: an on-the-bottom (OTB) directional frequency analysis and recording (DIFAR) and a 14,000-feet deep suspended DIFAR (DSD) [3]. Recent investigation of the ambient noise structure in the deep ocean suggests that a passive directional sonobuoy system covering the band from 5 to 500 hertz (Hz) would be of interest. When the sea state is calm and there is little distant shipping, the ambient levels are nominally 40 to 50 decibel (dB)/1 microPascal^2/ Hz. A sonobuoy array composed of a combination of omnidirectional and biaxial sensors with an electronic noise floor of 40 dB/microPascal^2/Hz is thought to be well-suited for this application, particularly in view of array gains that are possible as a result of the vertical anisotropic noise field. What is desired is an A-size sonobuoy which can be deployed from an aircraft and operate at or close to the ocean bottom (up to 6 km). The sonobuoy will have a minimal operational life of three to 14 days and be capable of storing data until commanded to exfiltrate the data to an aircraft or periodically to an over the horizon location. It is expected that in-buoy signal processing (IBSP) will be needed to reduce the data transfer rate and in-buoy data storage. IBSP will, as a minimum, consist of acoustic beamforming (possibly adaptive) and both narrowband and broadband processing. For data exfiltration from the array up to the radio frequency (RF) communication link, consideration should be given to data rates from the array, pressure and temperature variations across depths as well as survivability. It is expected that array design, long life, deep depth survival and data exfiltration will require innovative solutions because of the A-size packaging constraints. The RF communication link should conform to the receive capability of the air platform, which is composed of continuous phase Gaussian frequency shift keying waveform of 320 kilobits per second (kbps), for which 288 kbps can be acoustic data. Note that A-size refers to the standard U.S. Navy sonobuoy form factor or a right-circular cylinder having a diameter, length, and maximum weight of D=4.875 inches, L=36 inches, and W=39 pounds.

Compact Deep Vector Sensor Array Objective Develop a deep-deployed array of vector sensors for use in an expendable sonobuoy system. Arrays of vector velocity sensors provide major system gains over legacy arrays of omnidirectional hydrophones in bottom-moored configurations. For example, gains against ambient noise can be realized, the left-right ambiguity can be eliminated, and sensitivity nulls can be steered towards an interfering source, making much quieter targets detectable. Deploying such acoustic sensing systems for use at extremely deep depths close to or on the ocean bottom (below critical depth) in convergent zone type environments has garnered recent interest in the Navy. The advent of highly sensitive, compact directional sensors made

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possible by new transducer materials is a key enabler for this performance enhancement. Recent investigation of the ambient noise structure in the deep ocean suggests that a passive directional sonobuoy system covering the band from 5 to 500 hertz (Hz) would be of interest. A sonobuoy array composed of a combination of omnidirectional and biaxial/triaxial sensors with an electronic noise floor of 40 decibels relative to 1 micropascal per root-hertz (dB/uPa/rtHz) is thought to be well-suited for this application, taking into account possible inherent array gains against vertical anisotropic noise. The array design should be able to be deployed and operated at a depth of up to 6 kilometers. It should achieve nominal gains against noise of 15 dB (threshold) to 20 dB (objective) up to the 300 Hz region (and can include gains associated with a combination of operational depth and array gain). The required gain against noise should be measured relative to average noise at shallow water depth, based upon the ambient noise directionality system model. The array should be capable of operating at a voltage of 5.0 voltsdirect current with a maximum current draw of 70 milliamps. The array package must be less than 10 inches in height, no greater than 4.5 inches in diameter, and less than 15 pounds in weight (volume/weight constraint should not include power source). Because of the expendable nature of sonobuoy systems and the potential number of vector sensor elements required to realize effective gains, cost-effectiveness will also play a role in determining an acquisition choice.

Surface Technology for Ship-to-Shore Connector Concepts with Combined High Speed and Payload Fraction Objective Determine technologies applicable for ship-to-shore surface connectors including hydrodynamic, propulsive, or structural concepts that result in vehicles with high speed (>20 knots) and cargo capacity (75 tons or greater), while compatible with the constraints of operating from the well deck of an amphibious ship. Develop concepts based on innovative technology for a surface connector craft to transport equipment, material and personnel from a host vessel constituting a sea base which may be from 65 nautical miles (nm) to 200 nm offshore from the beach. The connector will need to operate and transit in sea conditions up through the top end of NATO Sea State 3. The sea base may be an amphibious ship equipped with a well deck capable of dry or flooded operation. The connector must be compatible with operating from a well deck, including refueling, allowing for scenarios when no fueling ashore or en route is anticipated. The objective is to carry a full payload on each leg of the round trip to address the need for retrograde transport from the beach to the sea base. The connector will require some amphibious capability ranging from the ability to cross sandbars, shoals and

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mud flats to the ability to deliver its cargo ashore above the high water level. The payload for delivery by the connector to the beach should be at minimum 75 long tons (LT), with an objective of 210 LT. Since the distances are much greater than typical for current well deck connector transits, increased speed in excess of 20 nautical miles per hour (knots) is of great interest. Concepts for, or technologies that would enable, well deck transported connectors to achieve, or approach, this speed, while carrying the full payload, are of interest, and higher speeds are desired if possible to reduce the transit/sortie times. The connector should be capable of embarking and launching amphibious vehicles, such as the AAV-7 in stream (at sea), so they can swim ashore or to a well deck ship if operations dictate. The movement of amphibious combat vehicles, tanks, and other equipment, material, and personnel ashore from greater standoff distance from the shore requires surface connectors with a combination of range, speed and payload not available in the fleet today. Current well deck surface connectors include the landing craft air cushion, which is fully-amphibious, can operate at high speeds and carry the threshold payload, but has limited range when carrying a full payload in the higher range of allowable sea states; the landing craft utility cannot cross very shallow waters (over sand bars, shoals, mud flats, etc.) but has greater payload capacity and range, albeit at speeds below the desired capability. Another developmental well deck capable surface connector is the ultra-heavylift amphibious connector, which has been demonstrated at roughly half scale. At full scale, it has the potential to achieve the 20knot target speed with the objective payload over a distance of about 100 nm. Other landing craft concepts that have been attempted and may provide a source of ideas are the power augmented ram landing craft and the Russian Navyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dyugon-class. Each of these well deck transported surface connectors meets some aspects of the desired capability, but no one connector meets all of the desired capabilities of speed, payload and range. This topic is seeking technologies that may enable any of these connectors to meet all three objectives as well as entirely new connector concepts that offer breakthrough performance.

Development of Marinized Protective Coatings for Higher Temperature Operations of Marine Gas Turbine Engines Objective Develop an Integrated Computational Materials (Science) and Engineering (ICME)-related methodology to predict and develop compatible marinized materials/coatings upgrades for Navy surface ship propulsion or auxiliary power gas turbines that will maintain long hot section life at sustained higher operating temperatures, leading to reduced maintenance and repair budgets. It is the Navyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s goal to increase the operational capabilities of its gas turbine engines that are used in surface fleet propulsion and auxiliary electrical power generation. Operational changes and future needs will require increased gas turbine operating temperatures and change the associated operating environment to one where Type I and Type II hot corrosion and oxidation will be prevalent in newly anticipated

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operational profiles. The U.S. Navy shipboard environment (the marine environment) is high in salt-laden air and water, which coupled with air and fuel sulfur species, causes aggressive Type I and Type II hot corrosion in gas turbine hot sections. Higher temperatures and environmental changes will increase engine corrosion and oxidation rates, thereby shortening engine life and increasing engine maintenance and repair costs. Current USN hot section materials were designed for low-temperature hot corrosion (~700C), but new USN operations may require engine materials to withstand higher sustained temperatures (950-1050C) and cycle more often, reducing engine life severely. Current coating development has been empirically based and has not been linked on computational/scientific/experimental data, where predictive models could lessen time and cost for the development of corrosion-resistant and oxidation-resistant robust coatings capable of higher-temperature service. This program would incorporate a computational and an experimental base to develop predictive models that will guide creation and development of coatings that are resistive to high-temperature corrosion (including hot corrosion) and oxidation in the Navy’s higher-temperature operational profile.

Power Technologies for Navy Conventional Ammunition Fuzes Objectives Develop a reserve power solution for Navy conventional ammunition fuzes that meets current and future naval ammunition fuzing requirements. The primary fuzes for the Navy’s 5” suite of ammunition, the MK 437 Multi-Option Fuze (MOFN) and the MK 419 MOD 1 Multi-Function Fuze (MFF), currently face obsolescence and sourcing issues with their reserve batteries. These reserve batteries are liquid-based. The cathode material for the MOFN battery is obsolete and the MFF battery is sourced from overseas (Germany). The technological obsolescence and strategic sourcing issues of the fuzes’ batteries puts the Navy’s ability to arm its ships with modern, reliable and precise naval gun weapon systems at risk. Given these shortcomings, this presents an opportunity to acquire an advanced reserve battery with the technology to support both current and future naval ammunition fuzing requirements. Thermal batteries present an interesting solution given their inherent environmentally and electrically safe design, long shelf life and zero maintenance. A new battery is required to sustain production of the Navy’s suite of 5” high explosive ammunition. Thermal batteries are a promising technology for potential fuze power. Thermal batteries have been extensively developed in the United States and represent a stronger industrial base than a liquid reserve battery alternative. While the thermal battery technology presents many advantages as a reserve battery, there are technological challenges impeding their application in Navy 5” electrical fuzing applications.

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Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy

Reserve thermal batteries are a single-use, high-temperature, galvanic primary cell battery. These batteries have been demonstrated to be environmentally safe and have a long shelf life which is ideal for military purposes. Thermal battery composition allows it to withstand the severe environment of Navy gun ammunition, particularly acceleration, shock, vibration and spin. They are reliable, safe, provide instantaneous activation, do not require maintenance, have chemicals which are inert until activated, and are designed to facilitate power or capacity improvements. The high conductivity of the electrolyte at high temperatures allows the battery to be discharged at high rates. Thermal battery applications and characteristics allow a design to meet specific electrical and environmental parameters. Thermal batteries present a favorable solution given their inherent environmentally and electrically safe design, long shelf life and zero maintenance. Thermal batteries have a rise time that is directly proportional to their size while their run time is dependent on maintaining elevated temperatures. For Navy fuzing applications, this presents conflicting requirements, as the reserve battery is required to rise to operating voltage very quickly and precisely while providing power for the relatively long time of flight. As a result, a large battery that might provide for the flight time would fail the rise time and volume allocation requirement. However, a smaller battery might address the rise time and volume allocation requirement but fail the flight time requirement. Currently, thermal batteries with a volume of 15-20 cubic centimeters cannot be designed to provide electrical power longer than around 50 seconds. Naval 5” conventional ammunition fuze applications require batteries that can withstand setback launch forces and spin rates. Battery volume must also meet set requirements for fuze applications. The electrical requirements must meet current standards for nominal voltage, current draw, and run and rise times. Specific innovations in both thermal battery heat management and scalable packaging efficiency to improve performance are required to meet these needs. Based on current ammunition fuze electrical requirements, a nominal voltage of about 12V, current draw of up to 325 mA, runtime of 200 seconds, and a rise time of less than 10 ms, with a standard deviation of about 1 ms, is expected. This reserve power solution will include scalable thermal battery packaging meeting requirements of Navy 5” conventional fuzing.

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Multi-ship Sonar Bistatic Automatic Active Localization Objective Develop multi-ship sonar bistatic automatic active processing and localization coordination that meets system requirements. The Navy needs improved performance when multiple surface ships are transmitting simultaneously in a strike group and when submarines utilize active sonar capability in coordinated operations. Bistatic reception and processing of active transmissions provides the capability for a single receiver to increase the amount of opportunities it has to exploit active acoustic transmissions, allows for stealthy receivers to process active transmissions without giving away its location, and decreases interference from many ships transmitting simultaneously. In order to achieve these bistatic reception benefits, each receiver needs some information about the remote source. A solution to the source information exchange problem within a communications implementation framework will allow for a cost-effective implementation approach to take advantage of the strike group and submarine active multi-ship coordination benefits. Successful application of multi-ship bistatic active sonar processing requires information exchange or inference of certain source transmitter parameters to achieve optimal processing and localization accuracy. To utilize an active bistatic receiver successfully, the receiver requires information from or about the source platform including location, timing, and transmit types. The successful offeror will determine the optimal information to either transmit to or estimate on the bistatic receiver to minimize processing losses and to achieve weapons-quality localization solutions. The optimal information exchange will focus on acoustic warfare scenarios of interest for a source platform (surface ship mid-frequency sonar transmitters) and two receivers (surface ship and submarine mid-frequency active sonar receivers). In order to process an active sonar transmission from a non-collocated source, a receiver must utilize or estimate the type of waveform transmitted; the source location, course and speed; transmission time; and source and receiver time synchronization. A lack of knowledge in each of these areas can result in processing losses (lack of waveform information and matched filter), processing delays (to estimate waveform information), source location course and speed errors (localization errors), transmission time (localization error), and source and receiver time synchronization (localization error). The sensitivity of the localization error to these various parameters can be estimated. The communications between source and receiver may be via high-quality satellite communications; via limited-bandwidth satellite or acoustic communications; or via little or no communications. Limited bandwidth communications may impact the localization errors when parameters are transmitted with limited precision. No communications between source and receiver may increase the localization error due to errors in parameter estimation as well as an increase in non-recurring engineering costs to develop estimation algorithms. Utilizing example mid-frequency surface ship and submarine bistatic localization scenarios, a trade space study will indicate which parameters are most important to transmit or estimate, with what precision, and with what localization estimation approaches to achieve the minimum amount of transmitted information to achieve high levels of bistatic active processing and localization performance.

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Temporary Crack Repairs for Aluminum Structures on Surface Ships Objective Develop a novel temporary repair solution for both sensitized and stress-cracked aluminum ship structures that arrests/retards crack growth, restores watertight boundaries, and can be performed by the ship’s force. There is a need for improved temporary repair technologies for the U.S. Navy surface ships, available to the ship’s force or shipyard maintenance for immediate application to cracks identified on aluminum structures. Currently, permanent repairs of cracked and sensitized aluminum in naval ship structures requires damaged material to be cut out. Replacement material is then welded back into the cutout shape. Permanent repair can be too costly and time-consuming for the limited repair times available, or if damage is identified during a deployment. In these cases, temporary repair methods are often used. Current shipforce temporary repairs are designed to keep the interior dry, but do not prevent additional crack growth. Improved temporary repair technology would ideally help minimize permanent repairs by preventing additional crack growth. Cracking in aluminum marine structures is often a result of fatigue or weld defects. Additionally, several classes of U.S. Navy ships use marine aluminum alloys for structures that are susceptible to sensitization. Sensitization can lead to stress-corrosion cracking. Permanent repairs of a cracked aluminum structure are expensive, and replacement of sensitized aluminum is even more expensive due to the additional quality controls implemented in fabrication, welding and inspection of repairs. Several temporary repair methods approved for use include fiberglass composite patches, polysulfide, doubler plates or compression bolts. Each of the current methods has drawbacks that limit the utility as a repair option. Fiberglass composite patches are costly due to installation and non-recurring engineering costs for each application. The current fiberglass resins cannot be stored shipboard, nor are they feasible for ship’s force to apply properly. Polysulfide is usable by ship’s force, but only re-establishes the watertight boundary. Doubler plates come in two varieties—welded or adhesive bonded. Welding adds residual stress that can start new cracks around the new weld joint, and adhesive bonded plates can be applied by ship’s force repair to reestablish watertightness, but does not arrest crack growth. Compression bolts have been proven effective when used on fatigue crack tips to prevent additional crack growth, but they cannot be implemented when the cracks end in non-planar areas and do not restore watertightness. Research is needed to develop a temporary repair technology deployable by ship’s force, is not limited by geometry, and can provide structural support to prevent crack growth and provide a watertight boundary for marine aluminum structures. The solution needs to be compatible with aluminum from a corrosion perspective.

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The Navy’s Proposed FY16 Budget ➥ Continued From pAGE 1

Selected Details

a strong emphasis on restoring stressed readiness as the Navy and Marine Corps team continue to operate forward in a challenging security environment. This year’s submission includes $17.9 billion for research and development, reflecting the emphasis on developing key capabilities for the future. This increase in research and development funding supports the Navy-Marine Corps team by providing technological advantages against adversaries in all environments and spectrums. “Overall, the budget presented to Congress for FY16 reflects a balance of investments guided by the Quadrennial Defense Review strategy and combatant commander requirements across capacity, capability and readiness,” said Lescher. “Across the full scope of the request, a strong focus on innovation and reform provided the foundation for maximizing the value of resources invested and sustaining our warfighting edge.”

In a challenging fiscal environment, the Department of the Navy (DoN) FY16 President’s Budget (PB) supports the priorities of the President’s Defense Strategic Guidance, as amplified by the Quadrennial Defense Review, and the priorities of the secretary of the Navy, chief of naval operations and commandant of the Marine Corps. The department prioritized investments to provide a credible, modern and safe strategic deterrent; global forward presence of combat-ready forces; preserve the means to defeat one aggressor and simultaneously deny the objectives of a second; focus on critical afloat and ashore readiness and personnel; sustain asymmetrical advantages; and sustain a relevant industrial base. As the nation’s forward-deployed expeditionary force, the Navy and Marine Corps provide the country’s most responsive capability for emergent security threats. The FY16 President’s Budget funding reflects the resources required in today’s security environment to rapidly respond to a broad scope of requirements spanning extremist organizations, pandemic diseases and natural disasters, while deterring assertive actors across the globe through expeditionary presence and dominant warfighting capability. To maintain this force, the DoN balances the required force structure with proper training. The FY16 President’s Budget balances current readiness needed to execute assigned missions while sustaining a highly capable fleet, all within a tough fiscal climate. This budget reflects a DoN Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) from 2016 to 2020 of $828.4 billion, $5.1 billion higher than the FYDP presented with the FY15 budget; the FY16 budget for the department is $161.0 billion, an increase of $1.5 billion (one percent). The FY16 budget funds construction of 48 ships across the FYDP. Providing stability in shipbuilding in order to affordably deliver warfighting requirements, the budget supports steady production of destroyers and submarines; 10 of each are constructed through FY20. The DoN will build 14 littoral combat ships (LCS) in the FYDP, the last five of which are of modified LCS configuration. The modified configuration program begins in FY19 with no gap from earlier LCS production. The modified LCS provides improvements in ship lethality and survivability, delivering enhanced naval combat performance at an affordable price. The FYDP shipbuilding construction program also includes one aircraft carrier, one LHA replacement, one LX(R), five T-ATF(X) fleet ocean tugs, one afloat forward staging base, and four T-AO(X) fleet oilers. PB16 also funds the refueling and retention of USS George Washington (CVN-73), its carrier air wing, and associated force structure. The budget supports a balanced manned and unmanned aviation procurement plan of 492 aircraft over the FYDP. The successful under way testing of the carrier variant (CV) of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) on USS Nimitz (CVN-68) in 2014 continues JSF program progression; 121 JSF aircraft of both Navy and Marine Corps variants are procured across the FYDP. The Marine Corps invests heavily in rotary wing aircraft, accelerating the procurement of the final 109 AH-1Z-1/ UH-1Y helicopters, and procures 37 MV-22 Ospreys. The first 24 Navy V-22 Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) aircraft will be procured starting in FY18. Investment in unmanned systems includes 18 MQ 4 Triton unmanned aircraft systems through FY20, with first deployment to the Pacific in FY17, and the procurement of 10 MQ-8C vertical takeoff

Appropriations Summary, FY2014-2016 (in millions of dollars) 2014

2015

2016

26,857

27,453

28,262

Reserve Personnel, Navy

1,850

1,836

1,885

Health Accrual, Navy

1,298

1,313

1,210

Military Personnel, Navy

Health Accrual, Navy Reserve

148

125

108

Operations & Maintenance, Navy

37,233

37,552

42,201

Operations & Maintenance, Navy Reserve

1,154

1,021

1,002

Environmental Restoration, Navy

0.0

271

277

Aircraft Procurement, Navy

16,206

14,758

16,126

Weapons Procurement, Navy

2,895

3,137

3,154

Shipbuilding and Conversion, Navy

15,231

15,954

16,597

Ship Maintenance, Operations and Sustainment Fund

2,038

540

0.0

Other Procurement, Navy

5,578

5,847

6,615

550

674

724

Procurement of Ammunition, Navy & Marine Corps RDT&E, Navy

14,912

15,955

17,886

National Military Sealift Fund

761

485

474

Military Construction, Navy & Marine Corps

1,634

1,080

1,669

Military Construction, Naval Reserve

Family Housing Construction, Navy & Marine Corps

Family Housing Operations, Navy & Marine Corps

344

354

353

Base Realignment & Closure Total

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167

140

157

128,971

128,567

138,752

February 10, 2015

unmanned uircraft systems. Aviation investments in the FYDP also include procurement of airborne early warning aircraft (24 E-2D), multimission helicopters (29 MH-60R), presidential helicopters (12 VXX), heavy lift helicopters (26 CH-53K), aerial refueling tankers (10 KC-130J), and the final 47 P-8A Poseidon multimission maritime aircraft. The FY16 budget funds an FY16 fleet of 282 Battle Force Ships. This baseline budget maintains Navy/Marine Corps flying hours at a T-2.5/2.0 rating, with the exception of the F/A-18 A-D aircraft, which are constrained by depot level throughput. Baseline funding for ship and aviation depot maintenance meets 80 and 77 percent of the requirements, respectively; and Marine Corps ground equipment maintenance is funded at 84 percent of requirement in the base budget. Facility sustainment levels for Navy are funded to 84 percent of the sustainment model and the Marine Corps funded to 81 percent in this baseline budget. To provide the required ability to deter aggression and respond to emerging security threats—including extremist organizations, pandemic diseases and natural disasters, the navy maintains 329,200 sailors and 184,000 Marines in FY16. The department has been challenged to meet Combatant Commander demand for forces, and associated higher-than-planned operational tempo, while dealing with the reality of reduced resources in the Budget Control Act. Surgeable forces have decreased due to increased maintenance on aging platforms, a reduction in aircraft and weapons procurement, and risks taken against support infrastructure. This budget continues to put a priority on readiness while maintaining the minimum investment necessary to maintain an advantage in advanced technologies and weapons systems. While we have accepted some risk in weapons capacity and delayed certain modernization programs, this budget provides us with a plan to keep the Navy and Marine Corps as a ready, balanced force. The FY16 President’s Budget funds the priority findings in the Nuclear Enterprise Review, including shipyard capacity, infrastructure and training, as well as nuclear weapons support manning. The department’s budget submission added approximately $2.2 billion across the FYDP for these efforts. Key elements include increasing shipyard capacity by funding a total end-strength of 33,500 full-time equivalents by FY18; accelerating investments in shipyard infrastructure and nuclear weapons storage facilities; funding additional manpower associated with nuclear weapons surety at the Strategic Weapons Facilities, Strategic Systems Program Office, and at both East and West Coast Type Commander Headquarters; and funding key nuclear weapon training systems to include another missile tube simulator and associated sustainment of ballistic missile submarine sailors. Overall, the department’s investments in readiness and infrastructure in PB16 are essential to generating the combat ready forces that support the DoD rebalance to the Asia-Pacific and enable critical presence in the strategic maritime crossroads spanning the Middle East, Europe, Africa, the Western Pacific and South America. Personnel The department’s military personnel constitute the lifeblood of everything we do. In the past decade, significant strides have been made to focus on Quality of Life factors such as: pay, leave, educational opportunities, access to quality health care and a sense of financial security. Beginning in FY16, the Navy will increase the number of sailors to 330,000 over the next five years to properly size manpower accounts to reflect force structure decisions, reduce manning gaps at sea and improve fleet readiness. This supports a FYDP goal of 50,000 sailors

February 10, 2015

under way on ships, submarines and aircraft, with more than 100 ships deployed overseas on any given day. The continued focus will be on recruiting and retention to retain the optimal mix of sailors that maintain the right skills and experience to adequately man the fleet. While the Navy expects to meet recruiting and retention requirements with slowed growth of regular military compensation, our focus will target increases in retention incentives for specific skills. Targeted implementation of career incentive pay and bonuses is essential to retain sailors through career milestones and incentivize critical skillsets. Specific incentives such as Selective Reenlistment Bonuses are essential to enlisted retention in nuclear, information dominance, special warfare and medical communities. The FY16 Military Personnel Navy budget requests resources to support Navy manpower, personnel, training and education. The budgeted end-strength in FY16 is 329,200; approximately 5,600 higher than the end strength requested in the FY15 budget. Major changes from FY15 include increasing end strength to support the refueling, vice decommissioning, of the USS George Washington (CVN 73) and its associated air wing, man the Ticonderoga-class Guided Missile Cruisers and Whidbey Island-class Dock Landing Ships, and add crews for new DDG-51 platforms and new Virginia-class submarines. The Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group will be the first CSG to execute one full Optimized Fleet Response Plan (O-FRP) cycle in FY16. This budget continues to reduce distributable inventory friction and improve fleet readiness. It increases junior officer billets to ensure the billet base reflects the work required. The FY16 Reserve Personnel Navy budget request supports 57,400 selected reservists and full-time support personnel delivering strategic depth and operational capability to the Navy, Marine Corps and joint forces. Today’s Navy Reserve is the most combat and operationally experienced force in decades. This extensive military expertise, combined with unique civilian skills, enhances the capacity of the total force. In support of current defense strategy, the Navy will continue to operate forward with appropriate use of the Navy Reserve. To achieve this end, the Navy is dedicated to investing in the necessary Navy Reserve recruiting, training and retention. From FY15 to FY16, Navy Reserve end-strength will increase slightly despite reductions in headquarters activities, aviation squadrons and Marine Corps chaplain and medical support. These reductions were offset by increases in shipyard surge maintenance, unmanned aerial vehicle support, and additional information dominance and cyber warfare mission team personnel. In the long-term, the Navy Reserve is expected to grow to approximately 58,900 end-strength with the investments in these high-demand and cost-effective mission areas. Readiness The FY16 budget request supports requirements for our carrier strike groups (CSGs), amphibious-ready groups (ARGs) and Marine expeditionary forces (MEFs) to respond to persistent as well as emerging threats. Navy deploys full-spectrum-ready forces to further security objectives in support of U.S. interests. Every day, more than 100 ships and submarines, embarked and shore-based air squadrons, and Navy personnel ashore are on watch around the globe. The Ship Operations program provides the Navy with critical mission capabilities. The budget provides for a deployable battle force of 282 ships in FY16. This level of operational funding supports 11 aircraft carriers and 31 large amphibious ships that serve as the foundation upon which the carrier and expeditionary strike groups are based. In

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FY16 14 battle force ships will be delivered: one nuclear aircraft carrier (CVN), two nuclear attack submarines (SSN), five littoral combat ships (LCS), two joint high speed vessels (JHSV), one amphibious transport dock (LPD), two Destroyers (DDG) and one Zumwalt-class Destroyer (DDG 1000). Three nuclear attack submarines (SSN) will be retired.

Category Ship Type Aircraft Carriers

CVN

Aircraft Carrier Total

2014

2015

2016

Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine

SSBN

Guided Missile Submarines

SSGN

Nuclear Attack Submarines

SSN

Submarine Total Cruisers

Destroyers

DDG

Large Surface Combatants Total Frigates

FFG

—

Littoral Combat Ships

LCS

Mine Countermeasures Ships

MCM

Small Surface Combatants Total Amphibious Warfare Assault Ships

LHA

Amphibious Assault Ships

LHD

Amphibious Transport Docks

LPD

Dock Landing Ships

LSD

T-AKE

Oilers

T-AO

Fast Combat Support Ships

T-AOE

AFSB(I)

1 2

Amphibious Warfare Ships Total Dry-Cargo Ammunition Ships

Combat Logistics Ships Total Afloat Forward Staging base (Interim) Submarine Tenders

Joint High Speed Vessels

JHSV

Command Ships

LCC

Mobile Landing Platforms

MLP

Surveillance Ships

T-AGOS

T-AKEs for Maritime Prepositioning

T-AKE MPS

Salvage Ships

T-ARS

Fleet Ocean Tugs

T-ATF

HST

Command & Support Ships Total

Battle Force Ships

281

271

282

High Speed Transport Ships

The FY16 budget request supports the Fleet Response Plan (FRP), enabling ships to surge and reconstitute by maintaining a continuous flow of ships from maintenance after deployment through basic phase training back to ready assets. This is achieved through seven/eight

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month deployments, with CSGs moving to a 36-month Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP) cycle beginning in FY15. This concept enables the department to provide multiple CSGs within required time frames to meet the threat and deliver decisive military force if necessary. The DoN will support these goals and respond to global challenges by planning for 45 under way days per quarter for the active OPTEMPO of deployed forces and 20 under way days per quarter for non-deployed forces in the baseline. The OCO request will support additional deployed/nondeployed steaming of 13/4 days per quarter. The Navy’s mobilization forces provide logistics capability that enables rapid response to contingencies worldwide. The prepositioning ship squadrons are forward-deployed in key ocean areas to provide the initial military equipment and supplies for operation. The prepositioned response is followed by the surge ships, which are maintained in a reduced operating status from four to 30 days. The number of days indicates the time from ship activation until the ship is available for tasking; e.g., Reduced Operating Status 5 (ROS-5) indicates it will take five days to make the ship ready to sail, fully crewed and operational. The department’s organic ship maintenance program is mission funded in O&M. It provides funding for the Navy’s public shipyards, regional maintenance centers and intermediate maintenance facilities. To ensure a capable workforce is in place for current and projected public shipyard availabilities, the FY16 budget invests in the organic shipyard maintenance capabilities of the four major naval shipyards, reflected as an increase in full-time equivalents (FTEs). This additional manpower will require time to train and certify in complex maintenance activities. To prevent a mismatch between the workload and the new workforce, the department is also investing in private contract maintenance. This private near-term investment will prevent more expensive future deferment of current work, and allow the FY16 FTE investment to be trained and qualified. The department’s active ship maintenance baseline budget supports 80 percent of the notional O&M projections in FY16. Air Operations The budget provides for the operation, maintenance, and training of ten active Navy carrier air wings (CVWs) and three Marine Corps air wings in FY16. Challenges exist in Navy and Marine Corps strike-fighter inventories. Until F-35B/C aircraft are available in required numbers, Navy plans to mitigate the inventory challenge with service life extension of legacy F/A-18 A-D airframes to 8,000-10,000 hours (over original design of 6,000 hours). Extension of legacy Hornet life requires additional inspections and deep maintenance that were not originally envisioned

February 10, 2015

for the aircraft. Average repair time has significantly increased because of required engineering of unanticipated repairs, material lead times and increased corrosion of airframes. Throughput at Navy aviation depots will improve in FY15 and is projected to achieve required capacity by FY17, which will improve inventory. To provide adequately trained aircrews in accordance with the Fleet Response Plan (FRP), carrier airwings (CVWs) maintain an average T-rating of T-2.5 comprised of the following components: T-1.3 while deployed, T-2.0 pre-deployment sustainment and T-2.7 post-deployment sustainment. During the maintenance phase of the deployment cycle, readiness degrades to T-3.3. Department of Navy Aircraft Inventory Type Anti Sub Attack

2014

2015

2016

3 142

151

144

BAMS-D

Executive Rotary Wing

Experimental

Fighter

119

130

In-Flight Refueling

Other

Patrol

139

149

165

Rotary Wing

1,312

1,375

1,356

Strike Fighter

1,199

1,171

1,150

Training Jet

284

285

281

The aircraft depot maintenance program funds repairs, overhauls, and inspections of aircraft and aircraft components to ensure sufficient quantities are available to meet fleet requirements to decisively win combat operations. The FY16 budget provides optimized capability within fiscal constraints. The overall increase in airframes is due to the increase in phase depot maintenance/integrated maintenance concept/planned maintenance interval and standard depot level maintenance events. In addition, inductions for legacy F/A-18 A-D aircraft were reduced due to the increase in time to complete depot level maintenance caused by the number of high flight hours inspections and additional engineering work required after these inspections. Multiple actions are in progress to improve the throughput of Navy aviation depots to return required number of legacy F/A-18 A-Ds to the flight line and sustain all Navy aircraft type/model/series. There is an increase in engine funding to complete an additional 132 engine repairs for the F414. Finally, the restoration of USS George Washington (CVN 73) and her related air wing support results in an overall increase to the account. The increase in aviation logistics is associated with the introduction of additional primary authorized aircraft (PAA) to the F-35 program, the flight hours support for the F-35 Engine program and Integrated Logistics Support (ILS).

Training Prop

310

290

311

Transport

108

117

118

Navy Reserve Operations

UAS Combat Support

105

110

UAS Patrol

—

The Department’s Reserve Component operating forces consist of aircraft, combat equipment and support units, and their associated weapons. Funding is also provided to operate and maintain Reserve Component (RC) activities and commands in all fifty states plus Puerto Rico and Guam. This geographical diversity allows the Navy’s Selected Reservists the opportunity to train outside of fleet concentration centers. The facility inventory increases to 132 for the Navy Reserve at the end of FY16 with the establishment of Navy Operational Support Center, Washington, D.C. RC flying hour funding enables ready Navy and Marine Corps Reserve aviation forces to operate, maintain and deploy in support of the Defense Strategic Guidance. The Naval Air Force Reserve consists of one Logistics Support Wing (12 squadrons), one Tactical Support Wing (five squadrons), two integrated Helicopter Mine Countermeasures squadrons, two Maritime Patrol squadrons and one Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron. The 4th Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) consists of nine squadrons and supporting units. The RC Aircraft Depot Maintenance program is integrated with the Active Component program to fund repairs, overhauls, and inspections, within available capacity. The FY16 budget provides optimized capability within fiscal constraints.

UAS Rotary Wing

Utility

Warning

100

3,947

4,056

Marine Corps tactical aviation readiness differs in approach and requires T-2.0 readiness to be prepared to rapidly and effectively deploy on short notice for operational plan or contingency operations. The Marine Corps Aviation Plan (AVPLAN) directs the training and readiness (T&R) requirements and resources to attain a readiness level of T-2.0. The T&R program aligns with department requirements by implementing a comprehensive, capabilities-based training system that provides mission skill-proficient crews and combat leaders to the combatant commanders. During FY16, overall readiness levels of USN T-2.5 and USMC T-2.0 will be unattainable due to the effects of F/A-18 A-D legacy Hornet outof-reporting status caused by aircraft depot maintenance throughput constraints. The intent of the FY16 funding level is for the average CVW T-rating to be T-2.5 and the average USMC T-rating to be T-2.0, with the exception of the legacy F/A-18 A-D squadrons. This drives the average T-ratings to USN T-2.8 and USMC T-2.4. Units will deploy at required readiness of T-2.0 or better.

Aircraft Depot Maintenance

Training Utility

Total

The FY16 base Flying Hour Program (FHP) is built upon an extensive and thorough review of the previous execution experience for both flight hours and cost-per-hour drivers. This process includes removing one-time and OCO-related costs and properly pricing aircraft systems and upgrades across all Navy and Marine Corps platforms. In addition, the number of budgeted flying hours represents the peacetime hours that are executable given current contingency operations.

February 10, 2015

Facility Sustainment Continued investment in Facility Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization (FSRM) is necessary to maintain shore installations supporting required capabilities from the Defense Strategic Guidance.

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The FSRM program ensures current facilities inventory is maintained in good working order and prevents premature degradation of facility condition. The FY16 budget funds Navy facility sustainment at 84 percent of the DoD-modeled requirement, up from 70 percent in FY15. This level of sustainment funding takes acceptable risk ashore with focused effort on sustaining critical facility components and performing facility maintenance affecting life, health, and safety of sailors. The FY16 budget funds Marine Corps facility sustainment at a rate of 81 percent of the DoD-modeled value in FY16. This level of Marine Corps sustainment funding assumes minimal risk in the near term by prioritizing life, health, and safety projects and deferring repairs and demolition projects in order to support a ready and capable force. Procurement

Shipbuilding Procurement 2015

2016

2017

2018

Ohio Replacement Program

—

CVN-21

—

SSN-774 DDG 51

LCS

2020

FYDP

—

LHA(R)

—

LPD 17

—

LX(R)

—

T-ATS

—

JHSV

—

MLP/AFSB

—

T-AO(X)

—

New Construction Quantity

(in billions)

$13.0

$14.3

$16.2

$17.1

$17.3

$16.6

$81.5

LCAC SLEP

—

Ship-to-Shore Connector

New Construction Dollars

SC9X)(R)

—

Moored Training Ships

—

CVN RCOH

—

Total Shipbuilding Quantity

104

$16.6

$20.1

$20.3

$19.1

$19.8

$95.9

Total Shipbuilding Dollars To maintain a robust fleet and adaptable Marine Corps, (in billions) $16.0 we invest in platforms and systems to address today’s wide range of operations. The FY16 budget also continues aggressive efforts to reduce acquisition cost. It balances a build capability that supports industrial base with a capacity that can be afforded. This budget provides the required level to maintain the advantage in advanced technologies and weapons, allowing the Navy to operate in every region across the full spectrum of conflict. The Navy’s shipbuilding budget procures 48 battle force ships across the FYDP. In FY16 there are nine battle force ships, including two Virginia-class submarines, two DDG 51 Arleigh Burke destroyers, three LCS ships, one LPD and one Oiler Replacement. Aircraft Carriers The next-generation aircraft carrier, the Ford Class, will be the centerpiece of the carrier strike group. Taking advantage of the Nimitz-class hull form, the Ford Class will feature an array of advanced technologies designed to improve warfighting capabilities and allow significant manpower reductions. With $2.5 billion requested in FY16, the department will continue to finance the detailed design and construction ($1.6 billion) of the second Ford-class carrier (John F. Kennedy (CVN 79)), and provide the first year of Advance Procurement ($875 million) for the third Ford-class carrier (Enterprise (CVN 80)). The FY16 President’s Budget includes $678 million for CVN 73 Refueling Complex Overhaul (RCOH).

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2019

Surface Ships The Navy continues to invest in capabilities to counter improved ballistic missile capabilities emerging worldwide. The FY16 budget requests $3.1 billion for two DDG 51 destroyers as part of the FY13 to FY17 Multi-Year Procurement (MYP) in support of this capable platform. The FY16 budget request also contains $1.4 billion to procure three LCS seaframes. Submarines The Navy continues to modernize the submarine fleet. Virginia-class fast attack submarines are joining the existing fleet of Los Angeles- and Seawolf-class submarines to provide covert force application throughout the world’s oceans. The department received authority for a followon MYP contract for up to ten submarines beginning in FY14. The FY16 budget request includes funds for two Virginia-class fast attack submarines ($3.3 billion) and Advance Procurement/Economic Order Quantity ($2.0 billion) as part of the FY14 – 18 Multi-Year Procurement. The next MYP in FY19 will include one Virginia Payload Module submarine each in FY19 and FY20. Amphibious and Logistics Platforms The FY16 request includes $550 million to complete funding for LPD 28, and $278 million for Advance Procurement for LHA 8. The Ship

February 10, 2015

to Shore Connector (SSC) program continues to procure craft, with five requested in FY16 ($256 million). The SSC serves as the functional replacement for the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), which is reaching the end of service life, and provides the capability to rapidly move USMC assault forces from amphibious ships to the beach. The LCAC modernization program continues with a service life extension for four craft in FY16 ($80.7 million). FY16 also represents the first procurement (out of 17 planned) of the Navy’s replacement oiler, with $674 million requested. Aviation Navy and Marine Corps aviation provides forward-deployed air presence in support of the national strategy; the FY16 budget request procures 492 manned and unmanned aircraft. The budget continues the FY14-18 multi-year procurement contracts for E-2D and KC-130J and the FY13-17 multi-year contract for the MV-22. FY16 is the last year of the MH-60 multi-year procurement contract. The first low rate initial production contract for MQ-4C Triton is also in FY16. 2015

2016

2017

F-35B (STOVL JSF)

F-35C (CV JSF)

EA-18G

E-2D AHE

2018

improved battlespace detection, supports theater air missile defense, and offers improved operational availability. The missions performed by the aging P-3 Orion fleet continue to transition to the P-8A multimission maritime aircraft, based on the Boeing 737 platform. The P-8A’s ability to perform undersea warfare to include high-altitude torpedo capability, surface warfare, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions make it a critical force multiplier for the joint task force commander. The KC-130J aircraft is designed for cargo, tanker and troop carrier operations. The mission of the KC-130J is to provide tactical in-flight refueling and assault support transport.

2019

2020

FYDP

—

Aviation Rotary Wing

P-8A MMA

—

KC-130J

AH-1Z/UH-1Z

—

109

CH-53K

—

The UH-1Y/AH-1Z aircraft fulfill the Marine Corps attack and utility helicopter missions. The FY16 base budget supports the construction of the last 12 UH-1Y aircraft and 16 AH-1Z aircraft for a total of 28 aircraft in FY16. The Osprey MV-22B Tilt Rotor has a follow-on multi-year procurement with the Air Force from FY13 through FY17. The MV-22B fills a critical capability role with the Marine Corps by incorporating the advantages of a vertical/short takeoff and landing aircraft that can rapidly selfdeploy to any location in the world. The Navy plans to replace the C-2A carrier onboard delivery by procuring a version of the V-22 Osprey; all 24 aircraft procured in FY18-20 are Navy V-22 variants. The department funds the fifth year of the FY12-16 multi-year procurement of the MH-60R Seahawk helicopter, which is part of a joint contract with the Army’s UH-60M Blackhawk.

Fixed Wing

Rotary Wing

VH-92A

—

MV-22B

MH-60R

—

MH-60S

—

MQ-8C Fire Scout

RQ-21A Blackjack

MQ-4C Triton

—

Major Aircraft Programs

135

124

102

492

UAV

Aviation Fixed Wing The F-35B Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant is a multirole strike fighter replacing the AV-8B and F/A-18 A/B/C/D for the Marine Corps. The F-35C carrier variant provides the Navy with a multirole stealthy strike fighter to complement the F/A-18. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye program is the next-generation, carrier-based early warning, command and control aircraft that provides

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February 10, 2015

Aviation Unmanned The FY16 budget continues procurement of a broad range of unmanned platforms in support of Joint Force and Combatant Commander demands for increased ISR capability and capacity. The RQ-21 Blackjack, formerly called Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS), is a combined Navy and Marine Corps program for a common solution that provides persistent Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance/Target Acquisition support for tactical-level maneuver decisions and unit-level force defense/force protection for naval amphibious assault ships (multi-ship classes) and Navy and Marine land forces. The MQ-8 Fire Scout program went through a Title 10 Section 2433 (Nunn-McCurdy Breach) review in FY14 due to a unit cost breach. The department certified a restructured program to Congress on 16 June 2014. The FY16 President’s Budget funds the restructured program

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which includes 70 air vehicles (61 procurement and nine RDT&E) comprised of MQ-8B and MQ-8C variants. The restructured program also includes the endurance upgrade, radar, and weapons capabilities, previously developed as Navy rapid deployment capabilities. MQ-4C Triton, a high altitude-long endurance unmanned aircraft system designed to provide persistent maritime ISR of nearly all the world’s high-density sea-lanes, littorals, and areas of national interest, will commence low-rate initial production in FY16. The Navy’s carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle efforts continue with the development of the unmanned carrier launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) system. UCLASS development will build on the operations, control technologies and subsystems demonstrated by NUCAS X-47B to provide an early operational capability to carrier battle group commanders in support of COCOM requirements in the FY22 – 23 time frame. Weapons Programs A ship or aviation platform cannot fulfill its mission without weapons. Ship Weapons The Tactical Tomahawk missile provides a premier attack capability against long range, medium range, and tactical targets on land and can be launched from both surface ships and submarines. The Block IV Tactical Tomahawk preserves Tomahawk’s long-range, precision-strike capability while significantly increasing responsiveness and flexibility. Tactical Tomahawk procurement ends in FY16 as efforts transition to the missile recertification program. The Navy has acquired sufficient inventory of the Block IV TACTOM with the FY16 procurement of 100 missiles to meet combat needs and will begin development of a follow-on nextgeneration land attack weapon. The SM-6 is the primary air defense weapon for AEGIS cruisers and destroyers. The SM-6 Block I has an extended range engagement capability to provide an umbrella of protection for U.S. forces and allies against the full spectrum of manned-fixed and rotary-winged aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and land attack and anti-ship cruise missiles in flight. The Department of the Navy has focused on its efforts to integrate the kill chain consisting of the E-2D Hawkeye, CEC, AEGIS and the SM-6 missile. The engineering change proposal (ECP) for the SM-6 Block IA configuration is planned for inclusion in the FY15 SM-6 production contract. The program will reach FOC in FY16. The Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM), a cooperative effort with Germany, is a high-firepower, low-cost, lightweight ship self-defense system designed to engage anti-ship cruise missiles and asymmetric threats. FY16

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is the fifth year of production for Block 2 missiles to provide increased kinematic capability against high maneuvering threats and improved RF detection against low probability of intercept threats. The Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) serves as the primary surface-to-air ship self-defense missile system. ESSM is an international cooperative effort to design, develop, test, produce and provide in-service support to a new and improved version of the SPARROW missile (RIM-7P) with a kinematic performance to defeat current and projected threats that possess low altitude, high velocity and maneuver characteristics beyond the engagement capabilities of the RIM-7P. In FY16, the department will pursue a new three-year multi-year procurement contract for ESSM BLK 1 missiles. ESSM Block 2 missile procurement commences in FY18. The MK 48 Advanced Capability heavyweight torpedo is used solely by submarines and is employed as the primary anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface warfare weapon aboard attack, ballistic missile, and guided missile submarines. FY16 efforts will continue the common broadband advanced sonar system as well as guidance and control modifications to the existing torpedo, optimizing the weapon for both deep and littoral waters and adding advanced counter-countermeasure capabilities. The department-funded efforts to restart the MK48 Torpedo production line in the PB15 request and FY16 is the first year of procurement of new torpedoes. Aircraft Weapons Aircraft weapons arm the warfighter with lethal, interoperable and cost-effective weapons systems. The AIM-9X (Sidewinder) missile is a “launch-and-leave” munition that employs passive infrared energy for acquisition and tracking of enemy aircraft. FY16 continues full rate production for AIM 9X Block II, which incorporates enhanced lethality through increased high off-bore sight acquisition capability, thrust vectoring to achieve superior maneuverability, lock-on after launch capability, data link, and countermeasures. The Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) is the next-generation, all-weather radar-guided missile designed to counter existing air-vehicle threats having advanced electronic attack capabilities. Upgrades to the missile incorporate active radar in conjunction with an inertial reference unit and microcomputer that make the missile less dependent on the aircraft fire control system. Procurement recommences in FY16 following the correction of testing and production deficiencies. The Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) program provides an air-toground glide weapon capable of attacking a variety of targets during

February 10, 2015

day, night and adverse weather conditions for use against fixed area targets. The Navy will cease procurement of JSOW starting in FY16 given sufficient JSOW C and C-1 weapons in inventory and other weapons that will provide the required capability in future near-peer surface warfare engagements. The Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Munition (AARGM) is an upgrade to the legacy High Speed Anti-radiation Missiles (HARM), with a multimode guidance and targeting capability. The department continues with the fifth year of AARGM production in FY16. Stand-Off Precision Guided Munitions (SOPGM), Griffin missile, is a short-range rocket propelled missile that uses GPS/INS to navigate to the target vicinity and a semi-active laser seeker for terminal guidance. The missile, included in the roll-on/roll-off KC-130J intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance weapon mission kit for USMC, has been adapted for use on surface combatants (patrol coastal and littoral combat ship platforms) as a short-range anti-surface missile to increase defensive capability against small boat attacks. The AGM-65E2 Maverick is a joint effort by the Navy and Air Force to modernize this capability with an enhanced laser seeker and new software that reduces the risk of collateral damage. FY16 OCO funding will procure Laser Maverick modification kits to convert AGM-65F InfraRed Mavericks in existing inventory to replace combat expenditures. Other procurement The procurement, production and modernization of equipment not provided for in the previous appropriations which generally support multiple platforms, is financed in the Other Procurement, Navy (OPN) appropriation. This equipment ranges from electronic sensors to training equipment to spare parts, and is integral to improve the fleet and shore establishment. The FY16 OPN budget is $6.6 billion. Other Procurement, Ships The DDG 51 Modernization program (DDG Mod) provides a significant integrated advancement in class combat systems and HM&E systems. This investment enables core modernization of DDG combat systems to keep pace with the 2020 threat environment and extend the mission service life of the ships to 35 years. The FY16 budget funds four DDG Modernization availabilities (three Hull, Mechanical & Electrical (HM&E)) availabilities and one Combat System availability), as well as procurement of equipment for six HM&E availabilities and one Combat System availability in FY18. Other Procurement, Networks and C4I Programs The department’s capability to carry out missions is dependent on Command, Control, Communication, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) programs. Cybersecurity is of principal concern to protect warfighting capabilities. The Navy and Marine Corps continue to issue technical standards and certifications to keep C4I systems modernized and resilient against threats. Along with DoD, we continue to streamline network operations through the use of common technologies and the synchronization of IT networks. Research and Development The Department of the Navy’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) program supports DoN missions by giving the department asymmetric and technological advantages against adversaries in all environments and spectrums. Science and technology research is vital to provide for future technologies that support innovative

February 10, 2015

capabilities in shipbuilding, aviation, weapons and ground equipment. Investment in R&D is also fundamental in electromagnetic warfare, protecting national interests across space and cyberspace. RDT&E, Navy (in millions) 2014

2015

2016

Basic Research

604

650

587

Applied Research

844

870

865

Advanced Technology Development

623

635

663

Advanced Component Development

5,152

4,444

5,025

System Development and Demonstration

4,174

5,236

6,309

RDT&E Management Support

1,153

973

956

Subtotal

14,912

15,955

17,886

Total (Navy & Marine Corps)

14,946

15,991

17,922

Total (Navy Only, excluding Marine Corps)

14,151

15,209

17,087

Overseas Contingency Operations

Science & Technology The FY16 budget requests $2.1 billion for the Science and Technology (S&T) program, including $10.2 million for development of “Speed to Fleet” (S2F) initiatives. S2F is a focused effort to accelerate insertion of maturing technologies into the fleet to address critical naval needs. This is accomplished via the transition of prototype S&T products from advanced technology demonstration to the advanced component development and prototypes phase. S2F initiatives included in the budget are SLQ-62 upgrade, real-time spectrum operations, virtual network operations center, lithium battery certification for submarine operations, AN/SPY-1 radar slide rule improvement and submarine launched device. The FY16 budget request includes $67.4 million for investments in directed energy weapons, including electromagnetic railgun and solid-state laser weapons. These funds are instrumental in Navy plans to conduct future at-sea demonstrations of these advanced technologies developed by the Office of Naval Research. railgun efforts are focused on development of a tactical railgun prototype capable of firing 10 rounds per minute and the pulsed power system architecture and components needed to drive it. The Navy plans to conduct a railgun at-sea demonstration aboard a JHSV in FY16. Additionally, the FY16 railgun request includes funds for the first phase of transition to the fleet, which is the integration of the Hypervelocity Projectile into existing and fielded shipboard gun and fire control systems. Solid state laser (SSL) technology maturation (TM) will utilize lessons learned from the SSL quick response capability development and installation on USS Ponce (LPD 15). These lessons learned will be applied to a robust SSL-TM prototype suitable for installation and long term demonstration on a naval surface combatant beginning in FY16. Ship Research and Development Ohio-Class Replacement: The Department of Navy has budgeted $1.4 billion in FY16 for the Ohio-class submarine replacement program (SSBN(X)). FY16 research and development efforts will focus on the propulsion plant, common missile compartment development, and platform development technologies like the propulsor, strategic weapons system and maneuvering/ship control.

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Ford-Class: The budget requests $184 million in FY16 for integration efforts, test planning and support, and funds to continue system development and demonstration (SDD) and developmental testing on advanced arresting gear (AAG) and the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS). FY16 also includes a request for $8 million to begin development of the enterprise air search radar, including development and integration funding. This radar will replace the dual band radar as the program of record starting with CVN 79 and follow-on carriers. Virginia-Class: Virginia-class submarine research and development efforts continue to focus on cost reduction efforts, operational evaluation testing, development of sonar, combat control, and electronic support systems, and submarine multimission team trainer efforts. The FY16 budget includes $125 million which continues efforts to improve electronic systems and subsystems, development of improved silencing capability and reduced total ownership costs for Block IV submarines. In addition, the FY16 budget includes $135 million for platform design efforts on future Virginia submarine strike payload capacity for Tomahawk land attack and follow on missiles. Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR): The budget requests $242 million in FY16 to continue the air and missile defense radar’s engineering manufacturing development phase and test the radar at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF). The radar is an open-architecture solution for DDG 51 ballistic missile defense sensors, while also improving the DDG 51 class air defense capabilities. AMDR is to be installed on the second FY16 and both FY17 DDG 51 ships and beyond. AMDR is a key component of the DDG 51 Flight III configuration. Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP): In response to current threats, the budget requests $75 million for continuing research and development efforts associated with SEWIP, which provides enhanced electronic warfare (EW) capabilities to both existing and new ship-based combat systems. These capabilities will improve anti-ship missile defense, counter targeting and counter surveillance activities. SEWIP Block 2 will develop an upgraded antenna, receiver and combat system interface for the currently installed AN/SLQ-32 EW suite, providing improved detection, accuracy, and mitigation of electronic interference. Also funded in the budget is SEWIP Block 3, which will add an electronic attack (EA) capability to the AN/SLQ-32 EW suite, providing an EA transmitter, array and advanced processing techniques. These system improvements will ensure the department keeps pace with the anti-ship missile threat. Aviation Research and Development The Super Stallion CH-53E, the only heavy-lift helicopter specifically configured to support Marine Corps missions, entered the fleet in 1980. An improved CH-53K is required to support Marine air-ground task force heavy-lift requirements in the 21st-century joint environment. The CH-53K will conduct expeditionary heavy-lift transport of armored vehicles, equipment and personnel to support distributed operations deep inland from a sea-based center of operations. The system demonstration phase will complete initial flight in FY15 and Milestone C in FY16. Advance procurement funding for long-lead items is included in FY16 for low rate initial production in FY17. The VH-92A presidential helicopter replaces the legacy VH-3D, which was fielded in 1974, and the VH-60N, which was fielded in 1989. The engineering and manufacturing development phase continues in FY16 to include the integration of systems, production, qualification, and support of test articles, logistics products development, demonstration of system integration, interoperability, safety and utility.

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Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy

The Next Generation Jammer (NGJ) is the next step in the evolution of airborne electronic attack (AEA) and is needed to meet current and emerging electronic warfare gaps, ensure kill chain wholeness against growing threat capabilities and capacity, and to keep pace with threat weapons systems advances and expansion of the AEA mission area. The NGJ AEA pod will replace the aged ALQ-99 tactical jamming system and will be integrated into the EA-18G aircraft. Increment 1 (Mid Band) technology maturation and risk reduction effort continue until Milestone B in FY16. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is in the 14th year of System Development and Demonstration (SDD) program. Approximately three more years of SDD work remain to achieve an operational requirements document (ORD) compliant, Block 3 configured aircraft. F-35C initial sea trials on USS Nimitz were successfully completed in November 2014. The redesigned arresting hook system allowed for 124 aircraft arrestments with no bolters. The initial operational capability (IOC) date for the F-35B STOVL is FY15 and the F-35C CV is FY19. Navy Working Capital Fund The Navy Working Capital Fund (NWCF) is a revolving fund that finances Department of the Navy activities providing products and services on a reimbursable basis, based on a customer-provider relationship between operating units and NWCF support organizations. Unlike for-profit commercial businesses, NWCF activities strive to break even over the budget cycle. The NWCF provides stabilized pricing to customers and acts as a shock-absorber to fluctuations in market prices. These fluctuations are recovered from customers in future years via rate changes. The NWCF is key to supporting the DoN’s presence and posture through capability, capacity and readiness. NWCF activity groups comprise five primary areas: supply management, depot maintenance, transportation, research and development, and base support. The wide range of goods and services provided by NWCF activities are crucial to the DoN’s afloat and ashore readiness and maintaining a relevant industrial base. The FY16 NWCF budget request reflects the DoN’s continued focus on ensuring the right products and services are provided where it matters, when it matters and at the right cost. The value of goods and services provided by NWCF activities in FY16 is projected to be approximately $28.5 billion. The NWCF 2016 budget request reflects a modest increase from FY15. The increase is primarily attributable to anticipated demand for supply aviation repairables and additional ships entering full operational status (FOS) within the transportation activity, including two mobile landing platforms and six joint high speed vessels.

February 10, 2015

Q&A with Vice Admiral Thomas S. Rowden ➥ Continued From pAGE 1 As for metrics, the real test of how we’re doing is: Do we have the ships ready for tasking that the combatant commanders require? There’s no better way to answer that question than to spend time on the waterfront talking with sailors. Our sailors have always been and will always be the most refreshingly honest people you could ever meet in your life. They are my surest measure of how I’m doing in the job. Getting the surface force properly manned is another goal, and while I don’t think we’ll ever get to 100 percent of exactly where we want to be, we understand the challenges, and we’re moving forward to appropriately address the manning challenges we have on our ships. But I saw the budgeting that we executed on the OPNAV staff, and we worked—and are working—diligently with the chief of naval personnel to get the people balance right. Looking a bit beyond the readiness of the fleet—but in step with “warfighting first”—I am keenly interested in ensuring we’re doing everything we can to maximize the operational availability of our amphibious force. I want to increase the operational availability of those ships so we can marry-up with our Marine brothers and sisters and get them where it matters, when it matters. The first three ships I visited after assuming command of SURFOR in August were USS Harpers Ferry, USS New Orleans and USS Boxer—all amphibious, Marine-carrying ships. I traveled to Sasebo, Japan, to look at USS Bonhomme Richard, USS Ashland and USS Peleliu, again, all amphibious ships, and all critical to our Marines getting back to their core mission sets. On any given day, you can see in the news that the Navy and Marine Corps team on our amphibious ships provides the president with invaluable options. As we add the MV-22s and bring the F-35Bs online, the importance of these ships is only going to rise. The operational availability of these ships is of utmost interest to me. When I was OPNAV 96, I worked closely with the resource sponsor for amphibious expeditionary warfare, OPNAV N95. My counterpart was a Marine Corps two-star general, Bob Walsh, and we worked together to develop the budget for the surface

February 10, 2015

A native of Washington, D.C. and a 1982 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Vice Admiral Thomas Rowden has served in a diverse range of sea and shore assignments. Rowden’s sea duty assignments include duty in cruisers, destroyers and aircraft carriers in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. During these tours, he deployed to the Arabian Gulf, Western Pacific, Sea of Japan, South China Sea, East China Sea, Philippine Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, Black Sea and Gulf of Guinea/West Africa areas of operation. He served as the commander, USS Milius; reactor officer, USS George Washington; commander, Destroyer Squadron 60; commander, Carrier Strike Group 7; commander, USS Ronald Reagan Strike Group; commander Carrier Strike Group 11, and commander, USS Nimitz Strike Group. Ashore, he has served on the Joint Staff as an action officer in the Defense and Space Operations Division; on the chief of naval operations staff as the theater missile and air defense branch head for the director, Navy Missile Defense, and as the executive assistant to the director of Surface Warfare. He completed a tour as surface warfare officer (nuclear) assignment officer at the Bureau of Naval Personnel Command, and served as commanding officer of Surface Warfare Officers School Command, Newport, R.I., where he oversaw the training of every officer en route to duty on ships at sea. His first flag assignment was commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea. His most recent assignment was on the chief of naval operations staff as director, Surface Warfare Division. Rowden earned his Master of Arts in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. His current assignment is commander, Naval Surface Forces/Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Rowden’s decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and other personal, unit and campaign awards.

forces. A couple issues we worked closely on were funding of maintenance readiness of our amphibious ships, as well as the phasemodernization of our cruiser fleet and some of the LSDs. We have to maximize the aviation capability our amphibious ships have because of their tremendous value to the combatant commanders. The Navy-Marine Corps team which we put on our amphibious ships really brings a tremendous force. Q: How has the budget impacted your operations? Do you expect additional stressors on your funding and, if yes, how will you address the challenges they will create? A: Fleet maintenance and modernization are integral to keeping our ships ready to fight and win. So if we are serious about supporting the CNO’s tenet of warfighting first we have to get our arms around this issue. We have been running our ships and our people very hard the last 15 years.

Our ballistic missile defense ships are deploying on short turnarounds, as are our carrier strike groups, and we have deployed them for longer periods of time. We are busier than ever answering the demand signal. On any given day 52 percent of our ships are under way. Over the past couple of years, our budgets have allowed us to operate effectively and maintain the naval surface forces. But budget issues related to government shutdowns, continuing resolutions and sequestration indicate budget concerns for the future. This has an especially negative impact on shipboard maintenance, specifically [on] contractually-driven actions that require long-term planning and funding to be efficient and effective. I am concerned about the impact sequestration could have on the number of ships we have in service. Our nation’s industrial base capacity for shipbuilding has decreased over time, and any disruptions to the planning and production of ships due to budget issues could have a long-term impact.

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All of that has a detrimental effect on the overall material readiness of our ships. Deferred maintenance shows up in significant cost increases. There is a U.S. Fleet Forces brief that shows any maintenance shifted to the right by four years can increase costs nine times from the point of discovery. No one has the funds to cover that cost increase. And that doesn’t address the problem of what deferred maintenance does to deployments and readiness. To help us address the additional stressors on our funding, we have doubled our efforts on financial accuracy compliance and cost avoidance. We want to optimize our buying power and provide good stewardship of the funds provided to the naval surface force. Q: Do you expect to see the DDG 1000 during its test and evaluation phase? What has to be done to bring a new ship into the inventory? A: As the type commander, my fleet introduction team is intimately involved in delivering DDG 1000 to the fleet. The process of bringing a ship into the Navy, what we call acceptance, starts with the shipbuilder. In the case of DDG 1000, it is Bath Iron Works, which conducts a series of operating and performance trials. Following additional trials, including builder’s trials witnessed by Supervisor of Shipbuilding (SUPSHIP)/Program Manager (PMS 500), and acceptance trials witnessed by the Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), the Navy officially takes custody of a ship from the shipyard. This event normally coincides with the crew moving aboard, setting up watches and living aboard the ship while final work continues in the shipyard. We are excited about the possibilities with DDG 1000. Like the littoral combat ship, it represents a departure from traditionally manned warships to the extent that many functions historically performed afloat will be transitioned ashore. The same holds true for a number of new advanced systems. Q: You mentioned LCS, which has been active in the Pacific. What has been the actual impact to your command, and how does that stack up against what was projected?

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A: We introduced the LCS to the fleet using the same methods we’ve used to introduce other classes of Navy warships. We continue to support some of the other new classes we’ve rolled out, including LHA-6, and will roll out, including the DDG 1000 class.  The impact for us was making sure we manned LCS with the correct number of properly trained sailors in the right pay grades; that we developed and implemented individual unit deployment certification criteria; and that we figured out a sustainable and effective maintenance strategy. My staff is working with the LCS squadron and each of the LCS crews to make sure the guidance being developed and resources being expended are going to the appropriate places. If course corrections are needed, options are presented to me for consideration. As the fleet gains more operational experience, we’ll learn more lessons and refine our processes.  Despite these challenges, I don’t think any of these tasks are out of step with what we expected as LCS entered the fleet. Training and equipment differs very little between LCS and other fleet assets. Even now, USS Fort Worth is in the early stages of a 16-month, four-crew deployment to the Asia-Pacific region. That’s happening as a result of a crewing rotation we’ve dubbed 3-2-1: three crews for two ships, one of which is deployed. What it means for Fort Worth is approximately every four months the entire 50-man crew rotates on station with another crew, keeping the ship deployed longer and extending our ability to provide greater presence in a vital part of the world. Q: What are the maintenance considerations of smaller crew sizes on ships, and does that have an impact on repair lists when they come to you? A: With smaller crew sizes, we have to think about the type of work they will perform, at what frequency, and how much of that work can be done by contractor support. In particular with LCS crews, we consider condition-based maintenance and increased automation a vital part of the equation. But anytime you are limited by your manpower, there will be an impact as to how much you will be able to accomplish, as well as staying ahead of routine work that needs to be done. Smaller crew sizes on ships don’t mean the ships are getting smaller. Smaller crew sizes sim-

ply mean we need to program and budget for the maintenance and repairs to be completed by our private-sector partners. So repair packages are being increased to complete the required maintenance and repairs as a result of having fewer sailors on board. Still, the cost savings of reduced manpower is greater than any increase in maintenance requirements. Q: Are there innovations either in prevention or treatment that can lessen the damage—and cost—of corrosion? A: For the surface force, preservation is a constant battle against corrosion. Saltwater and steel still don’t mix. The harsh environment in which we operate degrades our ships, increases resource utilization to combat corrosion and threatens readiness. Corrosion is akin to change; it is inexorable, omnipresent and must be addressed constantly. Fatigue and corrosion force decisions as to which ships remain in the inventory. The smart folks at the Naval Research Laboratory are continually developing new products to prevent corrosion. Many of them are being used today. But beyond products, I’m seriously looking into the policies we follow. Take tanks and voids for instance. Late identification of repairs in tanks and voids are causing extensions to availabilities, costing us huge sums of money and impacting training. In order to get ahead of this problem, I’ve asked NAVSEA to develop a more dynamic blast and preserve plan for tanks and voids. I believe there are some tanks and voids we should routinely blast and preserve every X number of years without an open-andinspect assessment. This plan would package this maintenance in the avails where it makes sense [in order] to get to the expected service life of a ship. Getting at these troublesome areas with a more disciplined approach will drive down the growth of new work in future availabilities. But let me make it clear that it takes more than finding some new innovation to control this problem. Each time the wrong parts are used, or materials fail, there is cost associated to fix the problem. It also means more availabilities in shipyards or pier-side keeping the ship tied up instead of under way. This is an area where we need everyone associated with ship maintenance to understand completely what is required and to perform—from acquisition

February 10, 2015

to construction, and through INSURV and acceptance. We need to squeeze every bit of useful life out of the ships. Q: How important are your relationships and partnerships with industry to maintaining the fleet? Are there ways you wish you could operate more like them—and are there ways that Navy sets the pace? A: The relationship between the shipyards and our ships is critical. The vast majority of our maintenance happens in private yards. We strive to work together in a tight partnership where we can understand one another, as well as help each other achieve our respective goals. For the Navy, that means getting the work done right the first time, on time, within budget. For the yards, they need something predictable, steady and with a profit margin that can help them sustain employment and, of course, turn out a superior product. I truly believe they’re keenly interested in ensuring they deliver a good product to the U.S. Navy. It’s important for us—the Navy and the private yards—to have continued discussions about what barriers there might be to achieving our goals and how to overcome them. This all leads back to what I said was my number one priority for the surface force—warfighting first. We owe that to the sailors who travel out of the channel and into harm’s way; it’s our responsibility to provide ready and well-maintained ships. What are some of my concerns? Completing maintenance (CNO avails, CMAVs, EM periods, etc.) on a consistent and predictable plan is essential. It also serves as the foundation for implementing the Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP), which is essentially an alignment tool to get ships under way with consistency and predictability. If we do not complete maintenance on time, the OFRP will not work ... it’s that simple. It’s essential that we transition ships from the maintenance and overhaul phase to the training phase unencumbered by open or incomplete maintenance. We cannot accept that a ship might sit for a month during a fully-funded availability without any activity because the right inspectors weren’t available or the right flavor of artisans couldn’t come together on the deckplates. So we’re working with the shipyards to give them the best plans and schedules early to allow the yards to anticipate what work needs to

February 10, 2015

Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy

get done—and when. This allows the shipyards the foresight to hire or retain skilled tradesmen and engineers to accommodate our maintenance availabilities. If we don’t plan properly, there are associated costs. Many times, those shipyard workers are no longer available when needed. They have been picked up by competing shipyards, left town for other opportunities, or possibly changed professions altogether. And if they are available, they may need to get current on quals and certs. This takes time as well—time the Navy doesn’t have. Working with the shipyards is a collaboration to which I am committed. If we don’t drive discipline into the maintenance and modernization process, we will never achieve the desired goals needed to meet the requirements of OFRP. Q: Any closing thoughts? A: The Surface Forces have a mandate, I feel, to get back into the long-range offensive game; the ability to create doubt and destroy the confidence of our potential adversaries by ensuring that we have the offensive capability to cause adversaries many more problems to think about. That’s the concept of distributed lethality. We’ve evolved dramatically over the last half-century from offensive capabilities to being more defensive. Think back to the Battle of Midway, the long-range striking power of carrier aviation when the opposing fleets never even saw each other. We made a giant leap forward in that regard, but we also created a large asset that needs to be defended. We started developing ships that still have

guns and long-range anti-ship missiles, but also more requirements to execute defense. We developed missile systems, from Tartar, Terrier and Talos missiles, and the SM-1 and SM-2, with defense in mind. As the anti-ship ballistic missiles came into the fore, we recognized that they created another whole problem-set for us. So we’ve drifted further and further away from offensive capabilities as we worked to address these threats. We need to shake that up for our adversaries, [and] think about how we might muddy the waters for them and complicate the targeting environment. If you give them one or two targets, you’ll always be on defense. But if you give our adversaries 20, 25 or more targets and have them coming from every direction, you turn the tables and suddenly they have to play defense. That’s distributed lethality in a nutshell. We can not only bring the ability to organically target, but target from significant distances. More than just distance, they also have to concern themselves with where that power is coming from—from aircraft leaving the flight deck of a large-deck amphib or carrier, weapons from a submarine, etc. So we bring all our forces to bear, complicate the targeting problem, and make it very difficult for our potential adversaries. Finally, I’m in my dream job. I love being SURFOR, and knowing my efforts, and those of my staff, preparing ships and sailors to deploy is putting warfighting first. At the change-of-command ceremony I jokingly said I’d stay in the job for seven years if they’d let me. So I am honored and proud to lead the Surface Forces.

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Contract Awards

February

Imagine One Technology & Management Ltd., (small business) Colonial Beach, Va., is being awarded a $19,280,653 Small Business Innovation Research Phase III, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract to provide an intelligent data mining agent and smart decision support process for the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program. The intelligent technology and support process required by the government will supply the CANES program with dynamic planning, re-planning and automation of test procedures, prioritization and optimization fixes based on component dependencies and potential impacts related to configuration changes, machine assisted analysis and learning during verification against design and assisted extrapolation of technical changes into all related technical documentation. This contract has a five-year ordering period up to the contract award amount. Work will be performed in San Diego, Calif., and is expected to be completed by February 2020. Fiscal 2015 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $3,700,000 will be obligated at the time of award and issued as a delivery order. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured because it is a follow-on to a Small Business Innovation Research Phase II contract. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, San Diego, is the contracting activity (N00039-15-D-0005).

the SPY-1D(V) radar with the air and missile defense radar. This modification to the existing DDG 51 Class Lead Yard Services contract will allow for DDG 51 Class Flight III upgrade design efforts, along with procurement of Design Vendor Furnished Information in support of the Flight III design. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss. (98 percent) and Washington, D.C. (2 percent), and is expected to be completed by February 2016. Fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $5,197,577 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a not-to-exceed $13,503,584 cost-plus-award-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-12-C-2312) for DDG 51 Class Flight III upgrade design services. The main goal of the Flight III upgrade is to replace

Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is being awarded a $13,027,540 cost-plusaward-fee/cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract (N0002412-C-2313) for DDG 51 Class Flight III upgrade design services and associated data. The main goal of the Flight III upgrade is to replace the SPY-1D(V) radar with the air and missile defense radar. This modification to the existing DDG 51 Class Lead Yard Services contract will allow for DDG 51 Class Flight III upgrade design efforts, along with procurement of Design Vendor Furnished Information in support of the Flight III design. Work will be performed in Brunswick, Maine (69 percent); Bath, Maine (28 percent); Washington, D.C. (2 percent) and Pascagoula, Miss. (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by December 2017. Fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $12,497,890 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

BAE Systems Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $52,103,717 undefinitized contract action to previously awarded contract (N0002414-C-4412) for repair and alteration of USS O’Kane (DDG 77). USS O’Kane will

be undergoing a scheduled drydocking selected repair availability, which is the opportunity in the ship’s life cycle to primarily conduct repair and alteration to systems and hull not available when the ship is waterborne. Work will be

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Vigor Marine LLC, Portland, Ore., is being awarded a $9,906,132 firmfixed-price contract for 72-calendar-day shipyard availability for the Mid Term Availability of USNS Yukon (T-AO 202). Work will include flight deck non-skid preservation, 72K Port and starboard main engine overhaul, No. 4 ship service diesel generator 20K overhaul, port and starboard clutch and coupling overhaul, tank deck overhead preservation, habitability repairs, steel replenishment at sea and fuel at sea Kingpost brackets and cargo system wire replacement. The contract includes options which if exercised would bring the total contract value to $10,173,178. Work will be performed in Portland, and is expected to be completed by May 5, 2015. Fiscal 2015 maintenance and repair contract funds in the amount of $9,906,132 are obligated at the time of award. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured, with proposals solicited via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with one offer received. The Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N32205-15-C-1000). Huntington Ingalls Industries, Newport News, Va., is being awarded a $9,252,000 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-08-C-2110) for onboard repair parts material procurement to support outfitting Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Work will be performed in Newport News, and is expected to be completed by September 2015. Fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $2,000,000 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair, Newport News, is the contracting activity.

performed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and is expected to be completed by November 6, 2015. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $19,967,830 will be obligated at time of award and will expire at the end of the

February 10, 2015

Contract Awards current fiscal year. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, Pearl Harbor, is the contracting activity. Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $35,600,000 costplus-fixed-fee delivery order against a previously issued Basic Ordering Agreement (N00019-14-G-0020) to complete a Joint Strike Missile (JSM) risk reduction and integration study of the F-35 Air System for the government of Norway. The objectives of the study are to further mature JSM weapon design and to ensure compatibility of the weapon with the F-35. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (50 percent) and Kongsberg, Norway (50 percent), and is expected to be completed in March 2018. International partner funds in the amount of $10,000,000 are being obligated on this award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. H & H Builders Inc., (small business) Tooele, Utah, is being awarded a maximum amount $30,000,000 firmfixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinitequantity job order contract for electrical, mechanical, painting, engineering/design, paving (asphaltic and concrete), flooring (tile work/carpeting), roofing, structural repair, fencing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and fire suppression/ protection system installation in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest area of responsibility for the San Diego, Calif., metropolitan area. No task orders are being issued at this time. Work will be performed at Facilities Engineering and Acquisition Division (FEAD) Naval Base Point Loma, FEAD Naval Base San Diego and FEAD Naval Base Coronado (excluding Naval Auxiliary Landing Field San Clemente Island). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months with an expected completion date of February 2020. Fiscal 2015 operation and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $5,000 are being obligated on

February 10, 2015

this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured as a service-disabled veteran-owned small-business set-aside via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with 12 proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest, San Diego, is the contracting activity (N62473-15-D-2415). Sikorsky Support Services Inc., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded an $11,582,807 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-09-C-0024) to exercise an option for organizational, selected intermediate and limited depot-level maintenance for aircraft operated by Adversary Squadrons. Work will be performed at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West, Fla., (40 percent), NAS Fallon, Nev., (30 percent) and the Marine Corps Air Station, Yuma, Ariz., (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in June 2015. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy Reserve) funds in the amount of $11,582,807 are being obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $9,603,500 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024 13 C-5403) for Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) and Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) engineering and technical services. This contract will provide for engineering and technical services in support of SM-2 and SM-6 to ensure continuity in production, design integrity and total systems integration of the missile round and its components. This contract combines purchases for the U.S. Navy (23 percent) and the governments of Japan (50.2 percent), Taiwan (14.8 percent), the Netherlands (4.3 percent), Korea (4.2 percent), Germany (2.9 percent) and Spain (0.6 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program or cooperative agreements. Work will be performed in Tucson, and is expected to be completed by December 2015. FMS, fiscal 2015 research,

development, test and evaluation, fiscal 2014 weapons procurement (Navy) and Cooperative Agreements funding in the amount of $9,603,500 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. Krempp Construction Inc., (small business) Jasper, Ind., is being awarded $6,699,538 for firm-fixed-price task order 0003 under a previously awarded multiple award design-build construction contract (N40083-14-D-2722) for renovations to Building 2034 and Building 2035 at the Naval Support Activity, Crane. The work to be performed provides for all labor, equipment, tools, supplies, transportation, supervision, quality control, professional design services and management necessary to perform asbestos abatement, gutting the existing buildings, construction of interior partitions, installation of fire-rated ceiling, fire suppression system, electrical and mechanical upgrades, addressing seismic issues, accessibility compliance, installation of interior finishes, installation of anti-terrorism force protection compliant windows and the installation of an exterior insulation finish system. Work includes but is not limited to design, general construction, alteration, repair, demolition and work performed by special trades. Work will be performed in Crane, and is expected to be completed by July 2016. Fiscal 2015 Navy working capital funds contract funds in the amount of $6,699,538 are being obligated on this award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Four proposals were received for this task order. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, MidAtlantic, Public Works Department Crane, Crane, is the contracting activity. Correction: Contract awarded Feb. 3, 2015 to Maritime Helicopter Support Co., Trevose, Pa., (N00383-11-D-0003F) for $25,499,598, should have stated the completion date as February 28, 2015. The short timeframe is to cover a onemonth extension.

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February

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Newport News, Va., is being awarded a $224,384,309 modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-14-C-2111) for the material and first year of advance planning of the refueling complex overhaul (RCOH) of USS George Washington (CVN 73). This modification will provide for the first year of RCOH advanced planning, shipchecks, design, documentation, engineering, fabrication and preliminary shipyard or support facility work to prepare for and make ready for the RCOH. In addition, this effort includes needed long-lead-time material requirements. The first year of advance planning work will be performed in Newport News, and is expected to complete by February 2016. The material requirements are expected to be completed by January 2020. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $57,523,198 will be obligated at time of award, and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured under the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. L-3 Communications Corp., Londonderry, N.H., is being awarded a $49,500,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinitedelivery/indefinite-quantity contract for binocular night vision devices. The binocular night vision devices will provide enhanced surveillance, identification, recognition and detection in all light and weather conditions, especially where vision is limited or restricted due to obscured and low/no light conditions. Work will be performed in Londonderry, and is expected to be completed by January 2020. Fiscal 2015 other procurement (Navy) and fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $191,866 will be obligated at time of award. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $38,373 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane, Ind., is the contracting activity (N00164-15-D-JQ22).

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Northrop Grumman, Annapolis, Md., is being awarded a $16,552,553 delivery order to previously awarded contract (N61331-10-D-0009) for the procurement of field-upgradeable kits and fleet support for conversion of the AN/AQS-24A mine detecting sensor systems to the AN/AQS24B configuration in support of the Airborne Mine Countermeasure Systems Program. Work will be performed in Annapolis, and is expected to be completed by July 2016. Fiscal 2014 other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $16,552,553 will be obligated at the time of award, and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, Panama City, Fla., is the contracting activity. AGVIQ LLC, (small business) Anchorage, Alaska, is being awarded a $12,500,000 cost-plus-award-fee modification to increase the maximum dollar value of a previously awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite quantity contract for environmental remedial action services on Navy and Marine Corps installations at sites in the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic area of responsibility. After award of this modification, the total cumulative contract value will be $112,500,000. Work will be performed primarily in Washington, D.C. (60 percent), Florida (25 percent), West Virginia (10 percent) and South Carolina (5 percent), and is expected to be completed by April 2017. No funds will be obligated at time of award; fiscal 2015 environmental restoration (Navy) funds will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (N62470-12-D-7004). CDM Federal Programs Corp. doing business as CDM Smith, Fairfax, Va., is being awarded a maximum amount $25,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinitequantity architect-engineering contract for utilities engineering and management support for Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), worldwide. Work will be performed at various Department of Defense facilities worldwide that receive

support services from NAVFAC, including, but not limited to, NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic (20 percent), NAVFAC Southeast (20 percent), NAVFAC Washington (10 percent), NAVFAC Southwest (20 percent), NAVFAC Northwest (10 percent), NAVFAC Europe Africa Southwest Asia (15 percent) and NAVFAC Pacific (5 percent). The term of the contract is not to exceed 60 months with an expected completion date of February 2020. Fiscal 2015 operation and maintenance (Navy) contract funds in the amount of $10,000 are obligated on this award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with three proposals received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity (contract number N62470-15-D-4002). Sensor and Antenna Systems, Lansdale Inc., Lansdale, Pa., is being awarded a $10,137,104 cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinitedelivery/indefinite-quantity contract for transmitter software and firmware engineering services in support of the AN/ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System. The estimated level of effort for this contract is 43,200 manhours. Work will be performed in Lansdale, and is expected to be completed in February 2019. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to FAR.6.302-1. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $320,000 will be obligated at time of award, all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Point Mugu, Calif., is the contracting activity (N68936-15-D-0009). Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., has been awarded a maximum $10,400,000 firmfixed-price contract for pallets. This contract was a sole-source acquisition. This is a twoyear contract. The locations of performance are Washington and Ohio, with an October 30, 2017 performance completion date. The using military service is Navy. The type of appropriation is fiscal year 2017 Navy working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Philadelphia, Pa., (SPE4A1-14-G-0007-THEG).

February 10, 2015

Contract Awards

February

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Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, Manassas, Va., is being awarded a $71,630,738 undefinitized contract action (N00024-15-C-6222) for the procurement of engineering development efforts and economic order quantity (EOQ) long-lead material for four Virginia new construction boats in support of Acoustic Rapid Commercial-Off-TheShelf (A-RCI) Technical Insertion (TI) 16. A-RCI TI16 program concept is that vast improvements in acoustic sensing can be achieved without changing the sensors. By sharply upgrading ship sensor processing, it integrates and improves the boat’s towed array, hull array and sphere array sonars. The long-lead materials being procured are necessary to continue with the program’s need to maintain schedule. Purchasing all necessary longlead material as an EOQ ensures that a cost break is received. Work will be performed in Manassas, (78 percent); Clearwater, Fla., (10 percent); Marion, Mass. (6 percent); and Syracuse, N.Y. (6 percent), and is expected to be completed by August 2020. Fiscal 2015 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $35,743,738 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire

at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1)— only one responsible source. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.

Gryphon Technologies, Washington, D.C., is being awarded a

$20,248,991 modification for task order EHP2 to previously awarded contract (N00178-04-D-4061). Program, engineering, technical and logistics services, including the engineering and technical personnel and facilities required to support hull, mechanical and electrical in-service and modernization programs and initiatives for Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) Philadelphia, Code 919. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va., (20 percent); San Diego, Calif., (20 percent); Bremerton, Wash., (10 percent); Everett, Wash., (10 percent); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (10 percent); Yoko/Sasebo, Japan (10 percent); Bath, Maine (5 percent); Ingleside, Texas (5 percent); Mayport, Fla., (5 percent); and Pascagoula, Miss., (5 percent), and is expected to be completed by January 2017. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy) and other procurement (Navy) funding in the amount of $2,000,000 will be obligated at time of award. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, Ship System Engineering Station, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.

Bruce S. Rosenblatt & Associates LLC, (small business) Oakland, Calif., (N00189-15-D-0009); CDI Marine Co. LLC, Virginia Beach, Va., (N0018915-D-0010); Gryphon Technologies LLC, Washington, D.C., (N00189-15-D-0011); Marine Systems Corp., (small business) Boston, Mass., (N00189-15-D-0012); QED Systems Inc., Virginia Beach, Va., (N00189-15-D-0013); and Valkyrie Enterprises LLC, (small business) Virginia Beach, Va., (N00189-15-D-0014), are each being awarded a cost-plus-fixedfee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract for marine design and engineering services to support the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., in its mission of ship repair and conversion. Bruce S. Rosenblatt & Associates LLC is being awarded $14,903,984, and

if all options are exercised, the total value will be $74,763,644. CDI Marine Co. LLC is being awarded $14,608,637, and if all options are exercised, the total value will be $73,630,372. Gryphon Technologies LC is being awarded $14,619,412, and if all options are exercised, the total value will be $73,794.734. Marine Systems Corp. is being awarded $13,890,103, and if all options are exercised, the total value will be $71,384,499. QED Systems Inc. is being awarded $12,081,784, and if all options are exercised, the total value will be $61,062,634. Valkyrie Enterprises LLC is being awarded $11,420,253, and if all options are exercised, the total value will be $57,292,504. Work will be performed at Portsmouth, (95 percent); San Diego, Calif., (2 percent); Jacksonville, Fla., (1 percent); Bremerton, Wash.,

(0.5 percent); Pascagoula, Miss., (0.5 percent); Sasebo, Japan (0.5 percent); and Yokosuka, Japan (0.5 percent). Work will be completed by Jan. 31, 2016, and if all options are exercised, work will continue until Jan. 31, 2020. Fiscal 2015 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $6,000 will be obligated for the minimum guarantee and will be equally divided among the six contractors. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The requirement was competitively procured through full and open competition and solicited through the Federal Business Opportunities website, with seven offers received in response to this solicitation. NAVSUP Fleet Logistics Center Norfolk, Contracting Department, Norfolk, Va., is the contracting activity.

Maritime Helicopter Support Co., Trevose, Pa., is being awarded a $25,499,598 modification for firm-fixedpriced delivery order 0005 under previously awarded performance-based logistics contract (N00383-11-D-0003F) in support of 1275 components of the H-60 aircraft. Work will be performed at Stratford, Conn., (70 percent) and Oswego, N.Y., (30 percent) and will be completed by January 2020. Fiscal 2015 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $25,499,598 will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire before the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(2), with one offer received in response to this solicitation. The NAVSUP Weapon Systems Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity.